Interview of Kathleen Somerset
Transcript Number 083

SEPTEMBER 19, 2001

We are at the library, the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. My name is Paul Zarbock, a part-time employee. Today is the 19th of September of the year 2001, and we're going to interview Ms. Kathleen Somerset. I'm going to turn it over to her. 

INTERVIEWER: Miss Somerset, how did you get in the military?

KATHLEEN: What a wonderful question. Young, feeling good, from lower Brunswick County, down at Ocean Isle Beach and Myrtle Beach. I wanted to know more than the local area where five generations of my family had lived, and I wanted to be well enough off on my own that I could cross the Cape Fear River bridge. The purpose of my desire to come to Wilmington, really was, I saw in the newspaper, where they were needing volunteers for the Filter Center to help dispatchers locate airplanes, ours and foreign planes too. One of my first jobs was to keep up with airplanes.

INTERVIEWER: I'm sorry, you called it the Filter Center?

KATHLEEN: F.I.L.T.E.R.

INTERVIEWER: How did it get that name?

KATHLEEN: The Air Force named it, the Filter News I guess, I mean, I really don't know, but they always called it the Filter. 

INTERVIEWER: Where was it located?

KATHLEEN: Basement of Front Street Post Office; you go in on the left hand side. Large offices are located underneath the ground that you don't see, you don't see daylight, and the volunteer shifts they had were from seven in the morning to seven in the evening, seven in the evening to seven in the morning. They kept us busy. 

We could pick up foreign, I call them foreign planes, but planes that were not identified, and then we had to get to work, and find out where they came from and where they were going, and the intentions. If we thought it was crucial with other air bases, of course I wasn't the air base, we had to notify all the air bases of any unidentified airplane. No plane could come in our area without being identified. 

We all were volunteers, no money involved. It was strictly the love of the country, the love of the people, and the protection of the town. Well I felt like, since really, I was not doing anything else with my time, I was young, I was active, and I wanted to get out there and do something. Why sit around? 

Anyway, a couple of the guys, one day at lunch, the restaurants downtown used to feel sorry for us and bring us our lunch down occasionally, but not everyday, and we were at the table, and one of them said to me, "Why don't you join the Air Force since you like it so well"? I said, "Well, they won't have me". He says, "Well, you know what, they got something that they are talking about in Fourth service command in Atlanta". It's located in Atlanta. He said, "I'll tell you what, I'm going to teletype this afternoon, and I will contact Atlanta, and see how you can join the Auxiliary Corps". He said, "Are you sure you made your mind up that you want to be with us?" I said, "When I say yes, I mean yes, I mean yes". 

He made the necessary connection. I believe his name was Sergeant Lutz, he was some German from the Pennsylvania area, some place. But anyway, he was a nice guy, and believe it or not, the first thing I knew, I got one of those Dear so and so letters to report to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in order to become, not a WAC, but a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps is what they called it then. What I thought I was joining, well, from there.....

INTERVIEWER: What year was that?

KATHLEEN: This was in 1942, the spring of 1942.

INTERVIEWER: Just after the war had started?

KATHLEEN: Yes, because everyone was trying to...they wanted women to replace men who was having to leave, but there's one statement I made. To work with men you have to understand men. Well, of course, being one of six girls, I didn't know many men except my Papa. But, my Papa told me, whatever I did, never, never, try to be smarter than any man. 

So when my promotion time came in, they offered me a big, old rank of Corporal. You know what I told them? I don't want no grade of Corporal, there's corporals in here that's been drafted, and they got wives and babies and all that stuff. If you'll just give me three meals a day, and the $21 a month you promised me, I promise you I don't like whiskey, and I don't buy expensive makeup, and so I can live off it. So why give me more money, I'm not here for the money, I'm here to let's get something done. 

So anyway, the new Corporal, bless his heart, he was real sweet, he got, oh I think he got $69. He was real proud, and so frequently he'd bring me in a coke, and things like that because he heard what I said, because I really didn't keep many secrets, you know. It was hard for me to keep a secret. I'd tell it before I realized what I'd said. 

Anyway, they sent me to Des Moines, Iowa, and when I got out there, it was so amusing to me. It was the first time in my life that all nationalities was mixed. I'd never really and truly saw anybody foreign-blooded, other than maybe a Greek person in a Greek restaurant, or maybe a Jewish person, and I didn't know none of those other people cause everybody I knew, I was kin to them, and we lived in a little village. 

There, I really met the world, whenever I got to Des Moines. So many of them would gripe, and all they had to go through mud holes, and they had to do this on basic training, and crawl on their stomach and turn over. Oh, calisthenics we had to take, it was a pleasure to me because I'd been down on the sound with the hurricane years, I had rode horses across the creek, and crossed the bases, and I only had to walk four miles to go to school, and catch a bus, and the ground frozen. I felt like I was in paradise. They were telling me, what was wrong? I said, "You people, you got it so good", I said, "Oh, my gosh, just learn to take it, what did you come in here for if you didn't plan on working". I says, "You remember, we've got a war on. We're here not to be faultfinders of the bosses or each other. Let's go". 

Anyway, I got my training there. They needed some women up in Boston. They sent me up there for about a month or two, and there we had too many women for....we all didn't have jobs. So they said, anybody willing to relocate. I said "Yes, do you know where I'll be going?", they said "No, that's strictly volunteer classified, you're not going to know where you're going until we put you on a train, and then you'll get your orders". Anyway, I wasn't afraid. I knew at that particular period they couldn't send women overseas, and I promised my parents not to go overseas. I was going to live up to my promise.

INTERVIEWER: How old a young woman were you?

KATHLEEN: Me, I was about 20.

INTERVIEWER: And this was the first time that you had traveled out of the state?

KATHLEEN: Yes, other than South Carolina, you see I was right on the border.

INTERVIEWER: All right, so you're going to volunteer, and they're going to put you on a train, right? You had no idea where you're going to go?

KATHLEEN: No, I notified my family, I'm leaving Boston, destination unknown. I'll get in touch with you later. So from Boston, here we go, and I was really disappointed to a point because I heard so much about Shreveport, Louisiana. When we got down there, they didn't have enough jobs to go around for us all. I stayed down there two or three months there, but it was interesting because I got to know so many bluesy, young people. In Louisiana, you know, Shreveport and Boston is worlds apart; even accents, and food and all that kind of stuff. 

The way I was, I guess you call it the gift of gab, I spoke to everybody I saw whether they spoke back or not didn't make no difference. I felt, well he's having a bad day. Anyway, when I departed from there, there again the single song come, you are leaving. Again comes where? You will find out, and your orders will be distributed after you get on the train. 

When I got on the train, my orders said to stop in California, about 30 miles, something of that kind, from San Francisco, and you will be in the advanced flying school. They called it WFTC, Western Flight Training Command of the West Coast, and you will be assigned to the Adjutant General's office. So here I go, and I went there, I guess it was about eight or nine months in the Adjutant General's office, and part of what I did then, I'm probably telling you something that you already know, but when we pick our best talents, our commanding officer said, this is what he'd say to us, and I'd give him back talk every time I got the chance, because he couldn't break me you know. "When you're a private, you don't go any lower."

I asked him why did he make discrimination on men, because I went in and out of his office all the time because I was just a low class clerk, you know. He says, "Well, we don't want to fill the airplane up with weight, we want to fill it up with men". So whenever you pull the files, maybe a thousand guys names to be pulled, he says you pick the single ones, and you get those height is 5'6" to 5'9", and let them all be single. He said you just go through the whole thing, and you select those. Then, when you get all those selected, I'll come back and let you know how far to go. Then we took them heavier; I think it was 140 pounds or 150, or something like that. Then we lowered, 5'5", we went up to 5'11", and the ones that were too tall, we transferred them to the Artillery Corps. 

Artillery needs big and heavy men. The ones that could run the fastest, we sent those to the infantry. People like me, with no grade at all, and 99% of the time, the commanding officers there didn't even challenge anything I put down. Here I was, as ignorant as I was, taking my word, and it going up to Mr. Roosevelt, at that time. To me, I said somebody should audit what I'm doing, and there's five or six other people, of course, doing the same thing I was doing. 

When they sent through for a quota of men to go, the advanced flying school, the only thing I saw which was real heartbreaking, was when the boys first come in from other schools, we had a special area for them, and they were called OLP, that means on the line trainees. They were still not trained for combat. We had to take them in there and train them for combat. We got them ready for combat. We put them on the shipping out list. They usually always would ship them out, actually the goodbye place they used to call; in fact, it was Camp Steadman, but they always called it Camp Midnight, that was the nickname because so many relatives and friends would be gathered around at the time of the departure, and they would leave sometime after 12 a.m. to keep the relatives away.

INTERVIEWER: What were your living conditions?

KATHLEEN: Oh, it was grand. In fact, we had a mess, and we had the very best. I used to fuss at them, because I had KP about every ten days. For instance, one day they would bake about four or five hams, and so many people would go out in the evening and buy their own meals, or friends would invite them out, especially on Monday mornings. They would take good cooked hams, and had a pit out there, I call them the garbage pit, and they would drop those hams, and then cook. They would have cakes, and pies that people had brought in there. In the Army, they said Army regulations, you could not serve leftover food. So what we had left one day, we had to get rid of it. 

About one day, when I was on KP, about everything I did was to fill the pit with good food. I said why don't we take it... there's a lot of underprivileged people, the Mexican people was just, oh they just lived in places looks like a hovel, you know. I thought it was so ridiculous to throw that food away. I got after someone, he was a doctor, he was supposed to be the inspector there. I said why are you permitting all this food to be thrown away, and he said, "With Uncle Sam ma'am, I've got to do what they tell me. It's not like practicing medicine." Of course, as I said, we had the very best of food, and the people were very, very kind to me. The incomers and the outgoers, and the young people I lived with and worked with..

INTERVIEWER: Did you live in the barracks?

KATHLEEN: Yes, where I live, there were 50 ladies that lived on the same floor, the bay area we called it. Some of them were different nationalities, and each one had different speech. One of them told me one day, something that I had pronounced, three words that she heard me say that I said improperly, that that wasn't good grammar. I said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do to you; I'm going to give you a job. Everything I do wrong, I want you to make a note of it, and come and give it to me. I'm going to change it, if you're sure you're right, you tell me. I'll change, I'll change. 

Anyway, I guess I should put this on film, or something like that, but I used to think if you were born north of the Mason Dixon line you were born more intelligent and you were richer than if you were born in the poor south. Well, I was born in the poor south, and those rich people north of the Mason Dixon line to begin with, I was a little bit hesitant as to..., well I guess, I'm going to be the underdog, but I'm going to bark real loud. 

Anyway, we got along just beautifully. I had a good time, and you know what, if I had an enemy among them, they never did let me know it. I'd ask them, how are you feeling today, fine. Then I always had to, I was kind of smart at that age anyway, I would say, I hope you haven't been eating any more razor soup today because I don't want you any sharper than you were yesterday, then I might run. (laughter) 

INTERVIEWER: Well what happened? You said you were with the adjutant?

KATHLEEN: At his office, I was just an employee. I worked right with the civilians.

INTERVIEWER: And you're still in the WAAC.

KATHLEEN: Yes, and then of course, later.....well, in fact, to be honest, and I kept hours like an officer or if anybody would go in town and give a bad check, I was one of the first ones to get the returned checks, and I had 201 files on all personnel off the base. Then, his commanding officer, I was supposed to at the end at each month, that's what we got from the outside, and what we were interested in was publicity. 

We were in San Joaquin County, and they wanted us to have good relations with all nationalities. Regardless of your color or your speech, or your education, what we wanted was cooperation, and to get going. Anyway, I worked there a good, long time. Over at the Officer's Club, somebody was supposed to keep a record because... I know you know about BOQ, Bachelors' Officers' Quarters. Well they rented their rooms by the month, and they ate at officer's mess. For each one, I had to keep up with how much he owed the mess hall each week, and what period did he rent his room for. I even had to deal with the tax business over there. 

Then I got kind of tired doing that. Then, a friend I had worked with where I used to work, she said to me, "They're wanting somebody in Cincinnati. It came in on the teletype not too long ago." She said, "Before I tell your company commander", she says, "Why don't you go over there and tell her that you would like a transfer even before she gets the message that there will be availabilities. She didn't even know it then. That evening, it was not very far from where I lived, I went in and told her, Ruth Mueller was my commanding officer. I think she came from New York. I went over there and I put on the extra military airs that you do, you know, when you're with a superior officer. I told her if anything should become available, that I wanted to go to the University of Cincinnati. And I wanted to work at the job I was going to do...

This girl explained to me what I would be doing. What I would be doing is I would be working at night, something like, oh my gosh, something like three to eleven. I could go to school, and work a shift three to eleven. So what I did, I took my military job. I lived at the dormitory with the regular college students. I went in and had my chosen subjects which, of course, was history, math, and of course, grammar English. And do you know that I remained there until October 18, 1945. 

Then, you wouldn't believe it, I came back Christmas. My father was 50 years old at that time, and my brother was real young, about five or six, and my sister was about six or seven, something like that. He died, never been sick in his life, and he died with a stroke. My mother had never even written a check. What she had, she'd give it away. She knew not and I could not afford to walk off, and go to school to get any more education than what I had. I put my nose to the grindstone. 

Another good thing happened to me. This apartment right next door to where we lived, of course, two of my sisters had come over here and started working for Southern Bell, and they had an apartment. Then, I was staying with them temporarily until I went back. My mother happened to be over here the weekend that my father died. During this same weekend, some neighbor from an apartment came and knocked on the door about 11:30. I had never met him. He says, I wondered if I could get anybody to do me a favor. He says, my wife and I went out tonight, and since she got food poisoning, I've got to take her to emergency. He said, I have no friends, and no family is here, and they had a baby about six months old. I wondered if you would come over and sit with my baby until I can see that she's okay in the hospital. 

You know what, I said yes before I....I wasn't even dressed to go out. I says, if you wait about three minutes, I'll be ready. I went over there and stayed until he came back. When he came back that night, he says, well, he said how thankful that he was that I did that. He says, over in my office, at the power company, we need some temporary help, and I wonder if the next couple of months, would you be willing to come down. He said, I can find something to do, he said, we all need money, or something like that, but he didn't know anything about my father.

INTERVIEWER: Now is this in Brunswick County?

KATHLEEN: I was living over there on 3rd Street.

INTERVIEWER: Here in Wilmington.

KATHLEEN: Yes, I had moved. You see, when I went in WAC, my sisters, which we were only about a year apart, they got a job with Southern Bell, back on 4th and Princess. In 1942, they were 18, about a year's difference among us, the first five anyway. I started working there because when my father died, my mother come over here to live. She would live down there. When he was gone, we were over here. So, with the two kids, she moved and came over here. 

This temporary job that I had, all temporary help always got a pink check, and the permanents got a green one. Gee whiz, this is January, I believe, or it might have been December. In September, his name was Dick MacDonald, I went in, and I said to him, I says, "You know what, you told that this month I usually get a green check". No, excuse me, "I usually get a pink check, and I says, you know what I got, I got a green check". Now just what does that mean. I've never made an application for a job here. I never had a physical which is required. Well, he says, I'll tell you what, you take your green check, and you spend it, and you stay just as long as you want to and I spent 35 years.

INTERVIEWER: When did you get out of the WAC?

KATHLEEN: Get out of what?

INTERVIEWER: When did you get out of the Women's Army Corps?

KATHLEEN: October 18, 1945.

INTERVIEWER: You were in Cincinnati?

KATHLEEN: I remained in Cincinnati.

INTERVIEWER: So you were discharged out of Cincinnati?

KATHLEEN: Right.

INTERVIEWER: What was your rank, were you still private?

KATHLEEN: I was still private, but on the discharge thing, the sergeant put on there that by reason...I got the good conduct medal anyway. I expected that. People I hadn't aggravated gave the good conduct medal. Another thing is, you mention the name of Bob Hope, you used to have a date and time...or they're coming after you on Saturday. Well lo and behold if the commanding officer, who at that time was Tull, Tom Tull, well he was married to this lady and King Edward the VIII, do you remember he married the Wallace girls, you knew about that. Well anyway, that was her brother's daughter. Our commanding officer's, it was his wife's niece. He was kind of a nice guy you know. He was just medium sized. I guess he was about my height, but he didn't weigh as much as I did. I bet you his wife weighed 300 pounds (laughter).

It was really interesting, but as I say, it was, to me, I had a lot of fun. Going back to Bob Hope, the very time that you would have an important social cause we normally, unless it was something unusual, we had every Saturday and Sunday off. Okay, you could go ahead thinking you were free on Saturday, and make plans for your social life with the people that you'd like to associate with and here, you'd hear that bell ringing in the barracks saying nobody leave the post, Bob Hope is going to be here at 4pm, and will be here until 8pm tonight, and nobody leave the post because Bob Hope is going to be here, and we've got to have 100% turnout to watch him. I never will forget this night. What he did when he got up there, was to pretend he was a big, fat woman trying to put a real, tight girdle on that night. It's the entertainment. Well, I've seen big, fat women trying to put on girdles that were too small. Bob Hope wasn't showing me a thing. I've already seen that.

INTERVIEWER: What was your job assignment in Cincinnati?

KATHLEEN: In fact, that was weather. I was assigned to the weather bureau and dispatcher, dispatching the weather.. I'd give a weather report to the dispatcher unit, whatever it happens to be. We didn't have back then, people in the office. Each person is supposed to learn the other person's job.

INTERVIEWER: Where did you get the weather information to pass on?

KATHLEEN: Well, we got it teletyped from some weather bureau up in Miami, the best I recall. 

INTERVIEWER: That sounds like pretty good duty.

KATHLEEN: Well, it's interesting. I remember one night, some guy, he was coming from out west, and he was going down to Miami. He said to me, he said, "You know what, it is...", I got on my weather coat, and he says, "I am getting so burned up down here, it's so hot until I feel like diving in the ocean". 

Those pilots and those guys you see, were so nice. Most of them had a feeling they might not be coming back. Something on the personal side, about every time they'd bring a new crew in, I bet you, you wouldn't have to know a guy to be friendly with him. Three weeks before he was proposing marriage, before he departed, before he departed!

I didn't marry anybody. I says, "No", I says, "Your state of mind is not fit for a lifetime decision", I says, "I wouldn't do that to you, and I wouldn't do it to myself". I'm not going to sit around here, and watch the wind blow and listen to the news, and you might not be back in five years. When you get back, you might be a different person. I don't want no commitment unless I'm sure I can live with it. I says I'd be just like I was in prison. My conscience would kill me if I would step out of line. 

To this day, I'm not married. I guess, I learned too much. No, I'll put it this way, you take a girl, she don't have very many boyfriends, she very seldom gets a proposal especially if she's unusually large, or her looks, it doesn't do her any good. The first time a guy says, "Will you?", there's a great, big, old yes. 

There was an acquaintance of mine, her name was Gladys Jones, she said that weekend, would I do so and so for her. I said, "Sure Gladys, I'll do it". She says, "I'm going to get married this weekend". I says, "To who?", and she told me somebody. Caraway, I think Thomas Caraway, or somebody. I says, "Where are you going to get married?", she says "I'm going to take the tramcar down to San Diego, and we're going to get married". 

When she came back, she showed us all her marriage license, and she was married to an Eric Jones. I says, "Gladys, what happened?" She says, "Well the other guy didn't show up, and this guy came, and I met him at the hotel, and I told him that I had been stood up. So he said he was going overseas, and he was interested in getting married. I says, 'Is this the first time that this happened to you?" She says, "Yes, and I'm married to him". I says, "Well, that is normal when he's getting ready to be shipped out, that is perfectly normal for a man to propose marriage to you if he's got a feeling that he has no special relatives, or anything", I says, "That comes with common sense". To this day, I don't know whether he ever came back, or whether they got together, or whatever happened. I believe she came from West Virginia, the best I remember. 

She was a nice person, she'd get up, I was always a slow poke getting the bed made, and stuff like that. I'd go down to the latrines, and always get in a conversation with somebody about something. I'd get back up there, and she'd have my bed made up, and my shoes in place. You couldn't have a better roommate then I had. 

Then, I had another roommate who was so good. Her name was Rosella Joseph, and she met this Jewish fellow, his name was Katz, Joseph Katz. And there again, we were supposed to scrub the floor; we didn't have any carpets, at least once a week. Do you know I didn't scrub my floor the first time, Rosella would get up at 4 am, and have a bucket of water and a mop, mopping under my bed, mopping under hers, and all the way around. Well I says, "I wish I had some of that smart blood in me, I'll do it, but I'm not going to do it before it's time to do it". 

INTERVIEWER: Where was this when you were in San Francisco?

KATHLEEN: Stocktonville, at the Stockton Air Base. Another something that was good, which of course, I think is nervy. I wanted to spend the weekend in San Francisco. That was that first weekend that I was here. I had this little, old, cosmetic bag about half as big as that trash can. I got off the tramcar, and I was walking down the street, and this very, elderly, old lady, she came up and tapped me on the shoulder. 

She said, "Do you have a place to stay?" I had made reservations at the hotel. I say, "Yes Ma'am, I sure do". Well, she says, "My husband was Dr. so and so, Snyder", and she says, "I live alone, and I'd appreciate it if someone would come spend the night with me, and I need to know if you're in town and need a place to stay or not". Well, I says, "That's real sweet of you, and I'll decline that invitation, but maybe we can get together some other time". Anyway, she called me, and I had Sunday lunch with her and went to church with her several times. She was always sending me presents. I can't say anybody was rude to me. Not even the top officers. 

INTERVIEWER: So, when you were discharged, this is an honorable discharge from the United States Army. 

KATHLEEN: I got a copy of it.

INTERVIEWER: Do you remember your serial number?

KATHLEEN: Yes, A14,000.

INTERVIEWER: 14,000? I'll be darned.

KATHLEEN: There was 13,999 went in before I did. A14,000, A,1,4,0,0,0. Am I crazy for remembering?

INTERVIEWER: (Laughter) No, I can remember mine. It's been many years. That's a number; I think that's a number you never forget.

KATHLEEN: Right. Well because now my social security number, I never even got a social security number until I went in. I forgot what year I got it, but I know I was in whenever I got it.. 

To me, as far as fear, I knew especially when we'd go over to San Francisco, you've probably seen at the movies. Mark Hopkins made a lot of movies and all. Well, I went there at least once a month; the 19th floor is completely glass. I went there one night, I met two people from Wilmington, and I met about four or five from other places. That was the only place that I hesitated in very long. They had a bar and a nice dining room, Mark Hopkins of course. 

As far as the Japanese, had been so close you know, Hawaii was just a jump and a haul, that I hesitated to stay up there very long. I kind of preferred, if it was left to me, if I was with a group, I went on up and said nothing. If I was just meeting another person or other, and myself, I'd rather we'd go places on the ground floor.

INTERVIEWER: What was Wilmington like when you got back, in, what was it 1940?

KATHLEEN: I came back in 1946.

INTERVIEWER: What was Wilmington like?

KATHLEEN: About 33,000.

INTERVIEWER: Everybody knew everybody?

KATHLEEN: Just about, I say everybody here. Say Pender County, Brunswick County, and Columbus County, and New Hanover, I couldn't walk down the street unless I meet some of my kin. I said, if I wanted to get away and do something bad, everybody would know.

INTERVIEWER: You've had an adventurous life, haven't you? You are an adventurous person.

KATHLEEN: In fact, I'm a person that I'm willing to take a chance. I'm willing to take a chance because if you don't have nothing, unless you branch out, you going to still be right where you are. I bought many old houses that nobody else would have. It was an adventure, you know you're throwing away your money, blah, blah, blah. I says, this is me, I don't have nothing, if I don't make nothing, I won't be any better or worse off than I was to begin with and 99% I was successful in anything I bought. It's been resold. 

INTERVIEWER: All the experiences that you had, you left North Carolina, you traveled in many states.

KATHLEEN: Oh yes, see I went on vacation, and then I would go on what they called a detached service, maybe be in a place for six weeks, that was not your home base, your overnight base. I just mean the places where I was based because they kept you on the run, and right before I enlisted, I was a volunteer. 

INTERVIEWER: What did you come away with from all of those experiences? What sticks in your mind?

KATHLEEN: What stuck in my mind most?

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, what did you learn from it?

KATHLEEN: I learned more about people, how to get along with people, and the A student is not the person you can always depend on. You've got to find out how much pressure can a person take. A C student sometimes is so much better off than an A student. Number one is, you've got to find out yourself, nobody don't have to find out for you, how much pressure can you take if it comes down to pressure. Pressure is the most important thing about education. There's no use in being an A student unless you can adapt yourself to take what goes with it. That adaptability to any situation. 

INTERVIEWER: That's a great lesson to learn.

KATHLEEN: Huh?

INTERVIEWER: That's a great lesson to learn.

KATHLEEN: You really think so?

INTERVIEWER: Yes.

KATHLEEN: Well, I mean that's the way I did it. 

INTERVIEWER: That's marvelous.

KATHLEEN: It might not work with everybody, but it certainly did work for me.

INTERVIEWER: Do you have anything else you want to share with me?

KATHLEEN: Well, I've already talked too much.

INTERVIEWER: You haven't talked too much, but you certainly have talked straight, and made a lot of sense.