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They were not to call me just to chitchat. And they were to have in mind what they wanted to say before
they called up. So we didn't hum and holler around. I kept a chart; we had on every Saturday morning a
family council meeting around the breakfast table. The girls, they took turns about the chores that they
were going to be responsible for. I put it on the chart. I knew who was responsible for what. I knew who
to find. On the other hand, I tried to make myself available. You cannot know you children as groups
anymore than you can know your friends in groups. That's a part of it. But at least, once a week, I tried
to have one child by myself, if it was nothing more than a trip to the grocery store, where I was perfectly
free to concentrate on that child, to hear what she had to say. And as I say, nothing is ever perfect. And
one of the stories that I love to tell them: the two older girls were away, Carol was already in college and
Chandra was in high school and had some kind of meeting that night. Curt and I were invited to a party
in North Dallas and I really wanted to go, but he didn't really want to go with me but that was ok. And
also one of us tried to be home with them as much as possible. But that night we decided the three
young girls were old enough to leave alone. And I think Keeta was 12, maybe 13, and then we could
leave them alone while we went to an early, evening party. And I had left dinner on the table. And you
know when you're at a party and the phone rings, and you somehow know it's for you. And my hostess,
huge party in a beautiful home, my hostess said, "You can take it in my bedroom." So I went back to the
bedroom and Keeta said, "Mother you need to come home now, the fire trucks are gone and all the
neighbors have gone home." And after I left, they decided they wanted a steak for dinner, so they were
broiling it, and caught the oven on fire. And I had a hard time living that one down. I left my poor
children home by themselves and went to a party.
Cousineau: Have they ever talked about it, as far as their point of view?
Castleberry: Oh, all the time. In fact, when my youngest daughter graduated from UNT, I was invited by
Dallas Women's Club, one of the outstanding organizations in the city, to come and talk with them, and
bring one of my daughters, on the mother-daughter relationship. And I took Kathy and one of the
questions they asked Cathy, "Why do you think that you and your mother have never had any major
mother-daughter problems?" and Cathy said, "Oh, that's easy. I have four older sisters and I have
watched what set her off and I tried to avoid them."
I do not consider myself a typical mother and I do not consider myself certainly a typical grandmother. I
told my daughters, I have 14 grandchildren and I've launched 13 of them. So, in critical times I wanna be
there, come Hell or high water, I will be present and accounted for. And when three of them had babies
within a six months period, I told them if they ever did that to me again, [laughter]. Just getting a new
baby on the way is not easy and I cook, there are three things that I love to do, all three of them take
large blocks of time, I cook, I quilt and I write and all three of them take major, major blocks of time that
I have to find the time to do the nitty gritty.
Guzman: What were some of the major events throughout history that kind of impacted you as a
journalist?
Castleberry: Of course, the one that everybody refers to is the Kennedy assassination. I covered that
from the moment that the President arrived in town November 22nd before daylight and straight