HomeMy WebLinkAboutNorthgate Panel 5Anderson
Boyett - With Mrs. Norman Anderson and Teeny Wicker, Teeny
Anderson Wicker.
Teeny - Right.
Boyett - And it is the afternoon of July the 12th in Bryan,
Texas. Alright Mrs. Anderson, it's a pleasure to visit with
you this afternoon to talk about some of the old things that
happened in College Station, and if it is possible to sort
of pick your memory and put it down on tape, these things.
Can you tell me how you first came to College Station?
Mrs. Anderson - Um, Reverend Anderson, Norman Anderson
received a call to this church and we moved in 1928 I
believe it was, from Taft, Texas where he had been a
minister. At that time the only child we had was Mary
Evelyn Anderson or Teeny as she was called, and we stayed
there - we've been here from 1928 now until he retired in
1962 and I am still here, from 1928 now from 1994.
Boyett - And how old are your Mrs. Anderson?
Mrs. Anderson - I was 90 the 22nd of June, 1994.
Boyett - 90 years old.
Mrs. Anderson - I have seen a great many changes, uh, uh, at
A & M.
Boyett - I'm sure that you have. Now you were a resident of
the North Gate area weren't you?
Mrs. Anderson - Yes, when we came, what is now Main Street,
ended at our house, we were the only house on the west side
on Main Street, and it had not been expanded towards Bryan.
In fact, if people came up the street they turned into our
driveway and went back. That was the end of the drive, at
that time the Baptist Church was a wooden structure where
was built the present Baptist Church, the brick structure.
There was a Baptist man across the street, and there were
businesses between our house and University Drive which
would have been about a block from what is now the
University Drive. Um, on each side. There was a little
blank spot on the right of our house, and then you had the
series of businesses,Sosolik's, a cleaning place, it was
called Rapps Cleaner's. Then there was a small, small
store, very small store and a Barber shop and Luke and
Charlie Grocery. This was before Luke and Charlie moved
around the corner.
Boyett - Now, if I'm not mistaken the actual location of
your home was what is now the corner of College Main and
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Church Street, and it's where the Baptist Student Union
building presently is.
Mrs. Anderson - We, i.e. the church, sold the property to
the Baptist Church for them to build their Student Union
building, and we, i.e. the A & M Presbyterian Church, moved
around the corner on Church Street in the present location.
Boyett - 0. K., and do you remember when the, the
Presbyterian Church first brought that building in there
that's now on Church Street, the, it was an old military
chapel, wasn't it?
[Mrs. Anderson - Yes, can you cut it off?
Boyett - Sure {tape cuts and comes back on}]
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Mrs. Anderson - Yes it was moved here in 1948 it was an army
chapel that was moved from, I believe, Victoria, and, uh, we
didn't have anything except the chapel itself, that was all
I think. Later, Sunday School and Fellowship Hall and so on
was built later on.
Boyett - 0. K.
Mrs. Anderson - ... Get back from the Victoria air base,
yes.
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Boyett - That's what I thought. Uh, well, obviously the
church had purchased that property to, uh, some years
earlier as I recall.
Mrs. Anderson - I don't know anything about that, uh, I
don't know if it, if it were done, I knew nothing about it.
After we came, I suspected that, uh, may have owned the
property at the time the house where we lived, uh, had been
built before we came, but it was very, very new. The yard
was just a cotton field. The furrows were still in it, and
the house was extremely new, had never been lived in before,
but the church at that time was very, very young, it had
just been, just been a couple of years or so (a short time).
Boyett - We looked at some photographs earlier, and it would
appear that from the back of your house, you could see a two
story house off in the distance, about a block away. That's
the one I identified for you as, as, Mrs. Seagers old
boarding house. Remember that?
Anderson - Very dimly.
Boyett - Oh
Anderson - I remember that, huh, beyond their house which
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was later Main Street opened up there was just a blank space
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where now the huh huh, Church of Christ built. There was
one isolated house over there but I never had anything to do
with it.
Boyett - 0. K. huh, do you remember how many people were in
the church when huh when you first came?
Anderson - Yes when we came, of course, we could not have a
church services in the morning we had... chapel and so we
met only in the evening upstairs on the second floor in the
YMCA and we had twenty -five members.
Boyett - Is that right? How about that. That was a big
meeting room upstairs in the YMCA wasn't it?
Anderson - Yes, the YMCA through the years has always been
very very helpful to any group.
Boyett - Any churches I recall.
Anderson - Not only the church but other areas too, they do
a wonderful job.
Boyett - Yea, yea. Have you been back in the YMCA Building
say in the last 10 or 15 years?
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Anderson - I couldn't say exactly 10 or 15 years, it would
be very difficult for me with my handicap now to get up
those front steps. I went up them for many many years.
Boyett - Guess what, that big room doesn't exist any more.
Anderson - Because we had church in the YMCA chapel.
Boyett - In the old chapel, that's right.
Anderson - And Mr. Anderson at one time had his office in
the back of the YMCA.
Boyett - Oh yea, I remember.
Teeny - By the stage area.
Boyett - Yea there were offices on either side.
Anderson - Yes.
Boyett - Well, they made it all offices now. it's a big
office area. Huh, can you remember some of the early
families that were members of the Presbyterian Church then.
Anderson - Do you remember the D. H. Reed family? They were
really active here, I saw an old picture of them not long
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ago and I kept up. They had two sons, one died years and
years ago. The younger son, Irving, died, I corresponded
with him until when I didn't hear last year, I was
wondering, and his widow wrote me that he had just died.
Boyett - Passed away.
Anderson - He wanted to hear from me each year because he
kept up with folks like Ms. Adams and Carolyn Mitchell and
folks like that that he had known here all those years ago.
Then there were the Gammons who were in the History
Department and of course the D. W. William's.
Boyett - His, huh, his son married a girl that I went to
high school with, Shirley. He became a doctor, his son Bill
became a doctor.
Anderson - I believe they were in Rockdale.
Boyett - Ah, I am going to say Waxahachie but I don't know
that for sure, but I know that he practices medicine and he
married a girl that I went to high school with.
Anderson - He had two sisters, Ruth Williams, who is now in
Dallas.
Teeny - They recently moved to New Mexico, mother.
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Anderson - They now moved to New Mexico, Teenie says, and
huh, had one older sister.
Teeny - Margaret Ann.
Anderson - Margaret Ann Williams.
Teeny - Lives in Austin.
Anderson - And she's in Austin.
Teeny - What about the Boltons?
Anderson - And the Bolton were very active members in the
church.
Boyett - Frank C. Bolton, wasn't that it?
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Anderson - F. C. Bolton, he had two boys and a girl. the
girl married somebody in the air service. They've been
around here recently, I mean they lived here for a good many
years and then Bolton, Preston Bolton, architect, moved to
Houston and Frank Bolton I believe was in New York City and
later in Houston.
Boyett - Oh.
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Teeny - I believe I saw Mrs. Lancaster...
Anderson - Mrs. Lancaster and of course all her children,
some of them live still around.
Boyett - She taught everybody music somewhere along the
line.
Anderson - Dr. Jones.
Boyett - Luther Jones.
Anderson - Luther Jones, was here for many many years.
Teeny - And Mrs. Leland is still alive too. Mary, of
course, is still here.
Boyett - Yes she is.
Teeny - Mr. McCulloch had they beautiful baritone voice.
Anderson - Mr. McCulloch?
Teeny - No, Mr. Killough.
Boyett - Oh, D. T. Killough. David T. Killough.
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Anderson - He had such a beautiful tenor voice. It was so
lovely. He sang for us often, he was a member of the
Methodist Church.
Boyett - He was a Methodist, he sang for everybody.
Anderson - Yes, he was so generous with his talent.
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Boyett - Yes he was, white hair! I remember now white hair,
huh, my first recollections of him. He was the first man
that I knew that wore a crew cut.
Anderson - That's right.
Boyett - And he was probably 50 -60 years old then.
Anderson - Made him unique.
Boyett - Yea. I went to their house a great deal. His
wife's name was Mable, and he had a son named huh, Johnny.
Anderson - Yes.
Boyett - And they lived across the railroad from where I
lived. They lived on the university farm huh, over with,
huh, they had a house over there and another family had a
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house over there named Roberts, Jacko Roberts. Remember
Jacko?
Anderson - Yes, I really do, I mean, not intimately, but his
wife too.
Boyett - Yes.
Anderson - They were fine people.
Boyett - Yes.
Teeny - Mr. Duncan, who ran Sbisa Hall and his wife Agnes
( "Aggie "), they were members of the church too.
Anderson - Mr. Duncan and Mrs. Duncan of course were active
in the church and huh
Anderson - She ran the board rooms after his death of
course. He was the one that ran Sbisa Hall so they were
very active in the church.
Teeny - Were the McFaddin's here in the early days?
Anderson - The McFaddins were here a long time, he was the
one that developed a new rust resistant wheat that would
help the whole world.
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Boyett - Rust resistant, that's right, yea, and I think
didn't they export or import that wheat to Russia and it
saved the Russian people a couple of times, or something, as
I can recall.
Anderson - Well, it saved a lot of the undeveloped countries
that couldn't
Teeny - He received national recognition for that.
Boyett - Do you remember typically how a week went, say when
you first came here and the church got started?
Anderson - Well, as the church grew, the Presbyterians from
the time we came had approximately 10 % of the student body.
When we came the student body was 2,500. It was strictly a
Military School. Students marched in to meals, they got up
by the bugles and went to bed by the bugle, and I knew
students, freshmen who at Christmas had not gotten off
campus as far as Bryan, because you had to have a pass to
get off and freshmen ranked lower than anything... and huh,
nobody could be married, nobody could have a car and so
things were quite different... Norman visited every night,
when he didn't have a meeting at the church, in the rooms
with the boys. He knew almost all the Presbyterian boys
before the school was out. That was one of the strengths of
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the work here in the early days, that the schools were small
enough and cadets couldn't get away from the campus on the
weekend.
Boyett - That's true.
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Anderson - But we, our whole program was based on the
college schedule. Whether they were going to have games
here or not and if there's was going to be a special college
weekend. We had to be through with church service when it
was possible for us to have morning service, in time for the
boys to leave the church and make formation for the boys to
march in to noon mess, so everything we did, what we
scheduled for our social life and everything was based on
what was ahead on the college schedule, for the student.
And of course the corps trips were very important events in
those days with everyone - all cadets riding a train.
Boyett - And everybody went.
Anderson - Yea, we looked at the beginning of the year, when
are the corps trips coming up, you know and where.
Boyett - That was not a weekend to schedule any church
activities?
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Anderson - We didn't do anything except the regular church
services.
Teeny - Mother, an interesting thing that describes a
little bit about life at North Gate was the fact that Daddy
was so interested, he had a little bit of a farm boy in him
and in that location at North Gate we had cats, dogs,
pigeons, guineas, several kinds of ducks, including... ducks
which don't quack, geese, banty rooster, chickens,
Anderson - Little curls of chickens all kinds of chickens.
Boyett - I remember.
Teeny - Practically overtook the whole backyard.
Boyett - I remember the bamboo around the back...
Anderson - If you ever had it you would never forget it.
Boyett - That's right. I remember that bamboo because it
was a big enough patch of bamboo that Fred and his brother
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Teeny - ... and we had them all pen up in a chained link
type fence, although I think it was probably chicken wire at
that time, as they called it, and daddy planted bamboo
around that fence to protect it a little bit.
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hauled out an area inside there to hide in, they had a fort
inside, hiding out in there, I remember that.
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Anderson - That bamboo will, stuff will uproot the side rail
of a garage.
Boyett - Yea.
Teeny - We were right there at North Gate and there was no
problems in having a little old barnyard in out back yard.
There was no problem.
Anderson - There was no one else over there. But you know
we also lived close enough to this the old Tourvilla...
trolley that went from College into Bryan could be heard
where the cadets put torpedoe on the tracks.
Boyett - The interurban.
Anderson - It was near enough we could hear the boys yelling
and walking you know, and putting torpedoes on the rails so
that there was a lot of excitement going on. Different
times...
Boyett - Do you remember where the terminal was in College
Station?
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Anderson - Just dimly. I don't remember well.
Boyett - I know where the tracks were and I can still see
one little place where there's a mound of it. Over in the
corner of Boyett Street and Spruce. But I don't know where
the terminal was because it came on the campus, if I'm not
mistaken. Didn't it come right up on the edge of the
campus?
Teeny - I don't know.
Anderson - I'm not sure. Ah, I don't know that I went to
the terminal at any time. I mean the boys that we heard
were just in the distance, we didn't see.
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Boyett - I can recall my father telling me about it and once
when I was very small I must not have been more than 6 or 8
years old, he took me to Bryan and he made arrangements, we
met somebody there and the engine was in a shed down there
and he showed me the engine. This is in the early 40's, and
he showed me the engine; it had a fly wheel that was
probably 6 to 7 feet in diameter high and it was in a shed
there and I remember seeing that stuck in a shed and it was
an old age, all the side of it were open you know. I never
saw it run. The tracks were already gone and everything but
I remember as a small boy seeing that and the man telling me
how they started it. They took a spark plug out of it and
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put a 12 gauge shot gun shell in there and hit it with a
mallet. They hit it with a steel mallet and it would fire
and cause that fly wheel to turn and when the fly wheel
started turning, then it would fire on the other cylinder
and they put the spark plug back, and all, and that was the
story he told. But I never saw it run, I just saw it in the
shed. It was dusty and grimmy and everything else.
Anderson - But one of the early things that was prevalent
was physical hazing; and it was something that was very bad
Boyett - Yea. Well, do you recall much about the local
people being involved with the students, the cadets in
church?
Anderson - Ay, yes, our church always had as it's motive for
being here almost, to serve the students at A & M. That's
always been the reason for being here, and so the faculty
were in it in order to help the students and the emphasis in
our church was definitely on the students and they took them
into their homes. The social life that they had, since they
pretty much couldn't leave the campus, was largely through
the church, the college and other organizations. Our
parties and everything were held in the home or at the
YMCA... but we started out having everything in our home...
everything.
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Boyett - Well, lets see now, if you came in 1928, do you
remember the actual gate that was called the North Gate? Do
you remember that?
Anderson - No, I don't think I ever saw it. I never did
know why it was called the North Gate.
Boyett - I have a photograph, that, huh, that Mr. Soslick's
daughter gave to me, and we think that it was taken about
1922 and it shows the gate with the two brick columns on
either side of it.
Anderson - Where were they?
Boyett - Huh, do you know where the post office is now?
Anderson - Yes.
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Boyett - It was across that street, what is now College
Main, right there in front of what is now the post office,
it was right there, and huh, there were two brick columns on
either side of it and an iron gate that they closed at
night, so, I don't know when it was taken down, but I, she
had information when she gave me that photograph, I have a
big print of it that indicated, I think it's in this book
that indicated that huh she thought it was taken around
1922, based on her father's records, but she made me a
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record of a copy of the photo a very large one, so we framed
it and I have it in my office. Do your remember the train
station?
Anderson - Oh yes.
Boyett - Yea.
Anderson - Very much the train station we used to go down
there, that was very much the big event.
Boyett - Do you remember some of the things, didn't the
Aggies go on corps trips on the train?
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Anderson - Oh yes, they just mobbed the train. The children
in the community also had a yearly treat. The children in
the first, second, I don't know how high in grades it went
but my children I know, along in the second grade got to
ride as far as Bryan on a train one day and that was a big
thing that they looked forward to. They were going to go on
the train into Bryan.
Teeny - Daddy drove and he got there before the train did
because he was waiting for me. I remember that. I rode the
train all by myself.
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Anderson - People use to go to the train to get on to see
people come to see people leave. It was kind of a social
place... You got to go down to the train... people didn't
have cars so they came in on the train.
Teeny - Well, let me ask you for my information, mother, was
that train you are talking about the original train station
or the one that was built right at the west gate across the
tracks? There's a little tiny train station that they've
got the sketches of for the new Am Trak Station and then
there was a larger one.
Anderson - I think I remember the original station. I
remember going down to the newer station when the boys were
leaving during the war to get on there and their folks were
telling them good -bye. It was very hard times at that time.
Boyett - I found the photograph in this book of that North
Gate in which were the two brick columns and it had an iron
gate in it and an iron fence along there.
Anderson - Now was this the only entrance?
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Boyett - Well, this was the only entrance on the north side.
The main entrance was over by the train station, and oh that
later became the entrance on the highway and it was about
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where huh the main entrance is about where Albritton Tower
is now.
Anderson - Oh yea, that's where we use to go down to the
train.
Boyett - Sure, yea, sure.
Anderson - I remember too, of course, where they turned the
college around. Where there'd been a back side became a
show place at the front now.
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Boyett - That's right, well, they moved the highway and huh,
what we know as Wellborn Road was originally the Highway
from Houston to Waco. That was Highway 6.
Anderson - Yea, and of course now we've got a huge
development in the west campus. A & M is not going to be
what it use to be either.
Boyett - Right, and all that development wasn't even part of
the campus, was it?
Anderson - Oh no.
Boyett - See.
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Anderson - In the earlier days all that we had down in there
were agricultural hog barns and horse barns, and food places
and all that kind of thing.
Boyett - And the creamery.
Anderson - Oh, yes.
Boyett - Remember the creamery?
Anderson - That was a big part...
Boyett - That was a choice place remember the creamery?
Anderson - And in those first days the creamery could
deliver milk on campus, that was before there was a protest
and they stopped doing that.
Boyett - Yea, huh, well lets see, you come in 1928.
Somewhere in the mid 20's there was somewhat of a big
scandal and a lot of the university administration had
charges brought against them for misappropriation of funds.
Was that all pretty well cleared up?
Anderson - Yes, I don't recall any part of that.
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Boyett - Yea, I just remember sketches of it whoever the
president of the university left and went to Oklahoma and
never came back and somebody ended up in jail over the thing
and I never got the full story of all that.
Anderson - I don't remember anything about that.
Boyett - Do you recall the football game weekends and the
dates coming to town?
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Anderson - In those days since there were no motels and
hotels here you knew that as soon as the college opened and
different events came up that you were going to have girls
staying with you the whole year long, whether it was Ring
Dance or the military weekend or a football game or whatever
since there was no place for them to stay. Anybody that
knew a student knew he might have the boy's girl here for
the weekend.
Boyett - For the weekend.
Anderson - Yes, and we did yes. It's just kind of an open
house on the part of everybody in those days of course. We
never did live on campus. But in fact we lived so near the
campus and everybody entertained girls then.
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Teeny - There was no place for them to stay but the
Aggieland Inn and it didn't have many rooms.
Boyett - I think it had like twelve rooms at most.
Teeny - At most.
Boyett - I remember the Aggieland Inn pre Stucko Building
right across from Sbisa Hall.
We built ours & then I remember when the Jews built their
Hillel Student Center across from campus.
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Anderson - Inevitably it rained on those weekends. I used
to feel so sorry for the cadets; they didn't have a car, so
the very few cars that were available even for rent or
anything, they were so filthy with mud and so few...
Boyett- Do you remember much about the other churches in the
North Gate Area you said the Baptist Church was across the
street from your home.
Anderson- Well, of course, the Methodist Church originally
was a tabernacle, I've always thought that they were here as
early as the Baptist church. They were very active and of
course later on he Church of Christ...
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Boyett- Over by Duncan
Anderson- .... & the Episcopal Church on Jersey Street
Teeny - Was the Catholic Church always located where it is
now on Church Street behind the Methodist Church?
Anderson- As far as I remember, not as elaborate. They have
such an elaborate church building now
Boyett- I can remember the Catholic Church up on what is now
University Drive, it was called Sulfur Springs Road then
where the Shell Station is now, there was a gray little
very tiny chapel that had a basement in it and the meeting
room, the chapel part of it, was up above and the basement
was sort of a half basement, but it always flooded when it
rained and I can remember that. And it must have been in
the mid to late 40's that they built the student building
and the bigger, their much bigger church back on Church
Street. Um, I remember that, it was, it was on a piece of
property that had been given to them by the Taubers. The
Tauber family all lived over there and the Patrskis.
Anderson - That's one of the families I've been trying to
recall the name of.
Teenie - Patrskis.
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Teeny - In those days did the water supply for College
Station come from those wells over off of Sulfur Spring
Road, you know the Whittens use to live there.
Anderson - I don't know anything about the water.
Boyett- It seems to me that those wells, there were two of
them, see, I seem to recall two wells along there. One of
them was on the Tauber property and I don't know who on the
other property. It's now where College View was for a
while, but I remember those two wells.
Anderson - Well when we came here, the water was so full of
sulfur, it just turned your silver just dark, I mean it was
real problem and it was several years before they changed
the water.
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Boyett- I remember that. I can remember that even back as a
child, we bought bottled water to drink. Now I can remember
that. And of course we had ice delivered for our ice box,
yep I remember the ice deliveries from, to put in our ice
box, it was back on our back porch and the guy always gave
me a sliver of ice to chew on, you know, I remember that
very much you know and I, I'd wrap dish towel around it so I
could hold on to it, but he always, he always I guess picked
up those big icicles up at the icehouse and threw them in
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there & of course they'd melt down somewhat, but he gave
them to the kids wherever he delivered them.
Teeny - I remember when they had the church parties, we got
to go into Bryan to the icehouse to get large chunks of ice
Boyett - yep
Teeny - and boy all us kids, went we just loved an
opportunity with no air conditioning to get up close to
those open doors down there.
Boyett - yea, yea
Boyett - chilled them
Anderson - For us, you know, that was a big help.
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Anderson - In those early days, we would go down to
Hempstead and load our car up with watermelon. In those
days you could, that was before they, the people down there,
realized how much money they could make on us so it was very
reasonable, you could get a huge one for 10 or 15 cents, so,
we'd just pile the car full and come back and we had
watermelon socials and the college was so nice, we could
take our watermelon and go over there and put them in the
ice house and they iced them down at no charge.
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Boyett- I remember you could, I remember you could pull up
to the dock, they did not deliver ice from the college, they
sold it, they had it for their own use and delivered it to
Sbisa, but you could go up there, drive up there, and they
would sell you ice off of the dock. I remember that. An if
you took a watermelon over there they would chill it for
you. I remember that. They'd put it in that brine, that
cold, cold brine
Anderson - Well we had, you know we had the large yard and
so we would maybe serve 50 boys watermelon.
Teeny - It's a wonder we didn't have a watermelon patch with
all the watermelon seed fights we had.
Boyett- Yea, well that's interesting, really good. Do you
remember much about 1929, the Depression when it hit, how,
what sort of effect do you recall that it had on the church?
Anderson- Well, it was a hard time here just as it was
everywhere else. Nobody had much money to spend as we were
a young church starting out, I just remember that it was not
any different from other people. We just had the regular
problem of trying to keep going, and the people sacrificing
to keep the church going and that kind of thing, of course,
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we were all living individually, as fugally as we could and
it hit again in the war.
Boyett - yea
Anderson - And of course that had a tremendous impact here,
uh, not so much financially, I guess it took away plenty of
the students so often here. It was a hard time.
Boyett - You know it's funny. My memories of World War II,
I begin to remember a lot more because I was of that age,
but as I recall, the student body got much much smaller, but
suddenly the military sent more and more people in here for
other training and in all reality there were more people
here than before, but they weren't all working on College
degrees. Do you remember that?
Anderson - Well, are you thinking about the students when
they returned.
Boyett - No, I was thinking about during that period while
the students were still in the army.
Boyett - But we had military people
Anderson - Yea, we had military people in our church and
several of them were wonderfully active workers. I can
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remember several different things that were very
influential, uh, I, uh, I don't recall any that I would have
thought of as equal to what we were losing from the
community, but maybe so. Certainly we did profit from some
of the military men coming in.
Teeny - College began to go on a 12 month schedule and prior
to that time, teachers who were trying to, uh, validate
their teaching certificates, speaking of women, could come
in the summer and enroll at A &M and daughters of the
faculty, could enroll at AM during the summer. As soon as
the war broke out and they went on that 12 month around the
clock schedule, they discontinued that.
Boyett - Oh, OK
Teeny - That was a disappointment to me because they were
not admitting girls to A &M and I wanted a credit on my
transcript and I never got an Aggie credit.
Anderson - There was very little change in the church. Of
course it was repainted and freshed and that sort of thing
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Boyett- Well, we mentioned earlier about the church building
being moved up there in 1948, ah do you recall what the
interior of the church looked like when it was first brought
up there?
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and the alter has been changed and you use to have a rail
around it like in all the Methodist Churches they had.
That's gone now. It was a typical military chapel built for
the military services
Boyett - The open beam, though, that are there now
Anderson- Yes
Boyett - were they the original open beams
Anderson - The overhead is still the same
Boyett - Still the same
Anderson - the windows are pretty much the same although
they've been dedicated as memorials, but huh
Boyett - I remember those open beams particularly it was
such a massive structure
Anderson - It was a church, you see it was design by the
government to be use by different denominations, I'm sure
they could just make little changes in the way that they
observed their sacrament and so forth, but basically the
building was designed to accommodate a number of the
different faiths.
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Boyett - denominations
Anderson - and it did and it just stood the test of time,
and of course we have added to the building itself and
change it around, because the offices for the ministers and
the choir that leads into the fellowship hall and all that
but the basic church is still there
Boyett - is pretty much like it was
Anderson - yea
Boyett - that church was built in Victoria at the army air
force base
Anderson - As far as I know, I mean it came from there
Boyett - yea
Anderson - So I assume it was built
Boyett - So it was built probably sometime during the period
say 1942 to 1945
Anderson - Well, I don't know anything about it before it
was moved over from there to us. I assume that
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Boyett - But anyway, it's certainly close to 50, years old
the building itself, and obviously has stood the test of
time.
Anderson - yes, we of course had to move it from Victoria
and put in different supports or one thing or another. But
we have never rebuilt it completely or changed the basic
structure.
Boyett - I think it has served the Presbyterian Community
very well.
Anderson - and many of A &M boys who go out from here
Boyett- yea that's good
Boyett- Ah did the Presbyterian Church continue to meet in
the YMCA up until that time?
33
Anderson - We didn't have our own building before we got the
one from Victoria so we met in a number of places. We met
upstairs in the Y for a while and then I can't give you the
dates exactly, but we met in Guron Hall at one time, and
then we meant in the YMCA Chapel in one time, we even met in
the old assembly hall, the old picture show and the Campus
Theater.
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Boyett - I remember the old assembly
Anderson - Do you remember that?
Boyett - Yes I do!
Anderson - In those days we had church the next morning
after the Saturday movie with popcorn and....all over the
place.
Boyett - right behind Law Hall
Anderson - Isn't that where the A & M chapel is now?
Boyett - where the chapel is now, yea
Anderson - and then from there we went over to the old
picture show, over there on North Gate
Boyett - I remember you met in the Campus Theater for some
time
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Anderson - In Campus Theater, we use to have to get the
stage ready quickly when church was over get all that stuff
put away for the one o'clock picture show that was coming
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and it had the flood lights you know around the bottom of
the stage.
Boyett - around the bottom of the stage.
Anderson - Do you remember Luke Patranella
Boyett - I do
Anderson - one day, he was a deacon and was taking up the
offering he came up and as he was standing somewhere for the
blessing of the offering, he let it fall and the money went
into all those different flood lights and it just made a
racquet all the way around.
Boyett - ah huh
Anderson - We had a lot of experiences in that church and
from there then did get our own building.
Boyett - your own building, which is the existing building
that the church has now.
Anderson - Yes.
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Boyett - Well, I thought that it was one of those cases
where the congregation just sort of moved and met where they
could
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Anderson - Just as a lot of the younger congregation today,
as they are getting started. The college or the community
has always been so nice about letting some of these churches
that have met in these schools use their buildings.
So that's how we got started.
Teeny - We met at the Campus Theater for a while.
Boyett - yep I remember that
Well lets see, we've talked quite a bit about your old
house. I don't think we've mention the fact that the house
that you lived in, in which you have a number of photographs
is still in existence and has been moved about a block away
and is a rent house now.
Anderson - what is the address of that, it is the corner of
what street?
Boyett - it's 301 Boyett street
Anderson - Boyett Street OK
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Boyett - The address is,that's 301 Boyett Street now.
Anderson - Now tell me where is your house the old Boyett's
home. I can see it in my mind but I can't place it.
Boyett - The old Boyett home was on the corner of Boyett
Street and Sulphur Springs Road and, where the Campus
Theater is now. The Campus Theater was built in 1939 and the
old house was moved a block back and about a block over.
And my dad turned it into apartments.
Anderson - Well now that's how I remember it.
Boyett- It looked like it was red brick, but it wasn't, it
had that asphalt material that looked like bricks on the
outside of it.
Anderson - That's how I remember it
Anderson - Isn't that nice.
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Boyett - OK, and I was born in that house when it sat up on
Sulphur Springs Road, it actually faced Boyett Street. It
was on the corner of Boyett and Sulphur Springs and I was
born in that house and huh, Mr. Soslik's daughter also had a
photograph of that house, that she blew up for me.
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Boyett - In fact the bedroom that I was born in was on the
front of the house and so the windows are there so I can see
that, but I have that and that house was moved back in 1939
and my parents rented apartments out of there. Huh they
sold the house in the early 60's and it burned while I was
in the service in the military. It burned, oh I'm gonna say
sometime around 1962 or 63. It burned and there were no
injuries and nobody got hurt but huh the individual who had
bought it, you know, had it leased. It was an old old house
and not all that good, but we had not lived in it, I had not
lived in it more than about a year when I was about a year
old my parents moved to the stucco apartment building that
was in the 300 block and it was a big two story building
with a slate roof. We saw some of your photographs showed
the back of that old house and we lived in an apartment
there until I was about six years old, my parents purchased
a house from the college and moved it further down on Boyett
Street and then we lived there from 1941 until 1957, of
course we I left and my parents continued to live there.
Anderson - You moved around but you stayed right here
Boyett - Yes I did, yes I did, we stayed real close, I
literally grew up in the North Gate as did your kids.
Anderson - oh yes, they use to go see Mr. Ivey at the
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Boyett - At the Barber shop?
Anderson - at the barber shop and see Mr. Lipscomb at the
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drug store
Boyett - at the drug store
Anderson - and huh see Charlie and Luke at the grocery store
Boyett - at the grocery store, yea
Anderson - they just lived
Boyett - An Albert Opersteny's Variety Store
Anderson - And Charlie Opersteny and Andy were, they played
together all the time. And there weren't any other children
there.
Boyett - no there weren't any
Anderson - so that was about it.
Teeny - Mother you mention the big fire at North Gate
Anderson - Yes I wanted to ask him about that
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Teeny - to me about 2 or 3 days ago and the only thing I can
recall, and I was in high school when we moved from North
Gate to Timber Street. The only thing I can recall it seems
to me that either Lauderstein or Youngblood had a fire in
their business establishment
Anderson - I think this, do you remember
Boyett - Holick's had a fire,
Anderson - who did?
Boyett - Holick's, remember the boot shop
Anderson- yea
Boyett - Holick's had a fire when I was maybe 8 or 10 years
old huh and Lauderstein had a fire in the cleaning, of
course, he was the last store on the right going toward your
house, on College Main
Anderson - yes, yes
Boyett - and he had a fire in the cleaners and that had to
be probably the early forties, early to mid forties
Anderson - Did that break out in the early morning?
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Anderson - I remember waking up
Teeny - Mother we were moved by the early forties
Boyett - Were you?
Teeny - yes
Anderson - Will this was a lot earlier, then. When did your
house burn?
Boyett - That house didn't burn till the 1960's
Anderson - Oh
Boyett - So that wasn't it
Anderson - I never have been able to remember, Luke and
Charlie have a fire?
Boyett - No the Zubik's Tailor Shop which was right next to
Charlies and Alberts
Anderson - Zubik, Zubik was the name of
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Boyett - Zubik Tailor Shop had a fire because it was in a
building that my dad owned and he had and was about 1948,
47 -48.
Teeny - mother's thinking late 20's, mid 30's
Anderson - I don't know
Boyett - Mid 30's. I wouldn't recall that, that's before my
recollection.
Anderson - I'm not sure as to the time, I just remember that
one night we woke up there was smoke everywhere in between
us and the North Gate.
Boyett - yea, seems like there was a fire along about where
Sosolik was before Sosolik built that brick building
Anderson - yea right along in there
Boyett - right along in there
Anderson - wonder if
side of the street. I believe that that was what happened.
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Boyett - yea you know that was the cleaners that was on your
42
That's before my time, but I remember hearing conversation
about that.
Anderson - They were one of the first people incidentally
who built a home to live in on the opposite side of the
campus. And that was just like building in Navasota. At
that time people just couldn't understand why in the world
would they build there, you know. Everybody was on the
campus, they were way down there.
Boyett - Yea, yea.
Anderson - Where the Hughes live now, you know.
Boyett - Yea, folks like that.
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Anderson - Carolyn Mitchell, down in that area. Nobody live
there then they were about the first people to build in that
area.
Boyett - Well, you've shown me a great number of photographs
of a lot of things that I am sure would be very good and I
trust that you'll loan those to the group, to reproduce.
But I would think they would be very valuable and I in fact
I think these photographs of the groups at the YMCA are
really special, particularly the ones with the girls in
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them. I think a lot of people would like to see that.
Don't you?
Anderson - Of course there's about 15 or 20 young people
from the local group.
Boyett - Right.
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Boyett - People that grew up there, yea. I think that's
very special, I really do. Well, I think that we ought to
conclude the interview by simply saying that we, as College
Station residents, appreciate the memories and appreciate
the long service that the Andersons gave to this community.
Anderson - Well, we've been very blessed to live our whole
married life, practically, here in a community like this.
And with students and then the educational atmosphere, it
has been wonderful, as Teeny says it's a wonderful place to
grow up.
Boyett - Oh yea, oh I agree.
Teeny - And the climate on campus...
Boyett - So friendly.
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Teeny - The social climate, by social I mean social studies
type climate.
Boyett - Sure.
Teeny - Was so different for girls on campus at that time.
Anderson - We never thought about locking doors or walking
across the campus at night or anything. If any of the
Aggies ever spoke to you it was just a very nice howdy, and
that was it.
Teeny - And the same thing was true with the young girls, we
never had any problem; there was just a compliment, if we
got a little whistle, that was just an appreciative
compliment. And we use to get followed by the surveyors
since we walked across the drill field,...
Boyett - nobody was threaten in those days were they?
Teeny - no
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Anderson - It was more like a family in those early days,
people, each one in the faculty knew other people, of course
as it grew that couldn't last, but, in the beginning it was
small. The Duncans gave a Halloween Party at Sbisa Hall and
everybody came in costume. That sort of thing. People knew
45
each other and it was just a different atmosphere as you
would expect. In the early days the community hadn't even
been incorporated. That's another story.
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Boyett - yea it is, that is. Well, I am going to conclude
the interview now with the thanks of all concern. Thank you
very much.
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