Anna Lambert Cardillo Interview
Anna (1914-1998) discusses topics related to documents related to Dominic Cardillo, Sr. Mary Ann, the interviewer and daughter of Anna, reads from Dominic’s story (“An Adventure in the Adirondacks”). She then asks Anna to speak on them from her own memory and point of view. They address parts of Anna’s life such as marriage, school, and teenager activities during the Great Depression. In her memory of the Great Depression in the 1930’s, she and her family were not struggling like some of those around her. Within the Depression, she had the opportunity to graduate from high school, get married, buy a house with furniture, and have children. She did this while also helping out other family members financially. We hear about her experience as a young woman on what it was like to give birth as well as the switch from home births to hospital births. Anna talks about daily live aspects like where teenagers such as the Candy Kitchen, Fusco’s, and the movies.
The mother-daughter relationship that Anna and Mary Ann have is significant to the interview and at the end, come to some kind of agreement. Even if Mary Ann does not emtirely believe her mother's claims that they did not worry about money in the 1930s, Mary Ann may be more believing oh her mother's financial claims and does not push back so much. Together, they made a narrative that Anna and their family overall never worried about money during the Great Depression.
When addressing Dominic's story, Anna had a different take from her husband, who also grew up in Saratoga Springs with Anna. She wants her life to be framed and remembered in a certain way and is influencing Mary Ann to change what she thought about her family’s past.