Oral history interview with Gertrude Cooper, 1986 May 15, 2006 March

Cooper tells about her father coming to Arizona in 1908 where he homesteaded in the area of Guadalupe and Greenfield roads in Gilbert. She describes everyday life ? hauling water, preserving and storing food, farming, riding horses, and getting around on dirt roads. She talks about marrying Delbert Mortensen who worked as an electrician and then eventually farmed her parents' homestead. Cooper also tells the story of gathering up children in Gilbert to start the first school. She mentions the Mezona, the Rendezvous Hall, parks, and a local baseball team called the Mesa Jewels. She also describes getting her first machine perm and ironing clothes with an old ?sat? iron.