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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Panel Group 10This' City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project I'm interviewing for the /SI time Today is ��� 7� , 9' (month) (day) (year) (Mr., Mrs., This interview is taking place in Room ,;345 of The- k me,at 1300 George Bush Dr. College Station , Texas . This interview is sponsored by the Historic Preservation Committee and the Conference Center Advisory Committee of the City of College Station, Texas. It is part of the Memory Lane Oral History Project. Have each person introduce themselves so their voice is identifiable on the tape recorder. The purpose of The Historic Preservation Committee is to gather and preserve historical documents by means of the tape - recorded interview. Tape recordings and transcripts resulting from such interviews become part of the archives of The City of College Station Historic Preservation Committee and Conference Center Advisory Committee to be used for whatever purposes may be determined. with 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The City of College Station, Texas Memory Lanes Oral History Project INTERVIEW AGREEMENT I have read the above and voluntarily offer my portion of the interviews f Interviewee) 7. 8. 9_ 10. 11. 12. In view of the scholarly value of this research material, I hereby assign rights, title, and interest pertaining to it to The City of College Station Historic Preservation Committee and Confere nter —A isory Committee. 11111rd Aid Int Viewer (signatu /9 1 �v • ig a /narhgez_. Interviewer (Please Print) Date place in Maria in Historic Advisory C 13e , 1 te- S0111/isO ✓A S- May 22 Today I am interviewing for the 1st time Ms. Charlie Willie May Bell Johnson. This interview is taking Rm. 205 at the Crestview Nursing Home at Villa Bryan, TX. This interview is sponsored by the Preservation Committee and the Conference Center Committee of the City of College Station, TX. It a part of the Memory Lane Oral History project. Where were you born and lived up to age 6 or 7 years old? is I was born up here on E. 29th St. I didn't live there too long after I was born. That's where my family lived when the others, I was the youngest then, uh, and then my father and mother - I don't know what year it was - they went to, uh, Dayton, TX. That's where his mother lived and, uh, we lived there a while. But, uh, my mother said that we had to start school sometime. It was just a little town and, uh, she decides to come back to Brazos County. My grandfather lived at, just 2 miles down here on a farm below College Station. In fact it may be in the city limits now. I don't know. But anyway, we stayed there till we found a place to live out near College. We lived on that, uh, right across the street, east, east of, uh, Highway 6 , just about 3 minutes and then we moved to Bryan, TX on, back up here to, uh, on Lamar St. We called it Lamar. It was E. 29th St. at that time. I mean it was Lamar St. at that time. It's now E. 29th St. And we went to school there, to that school, uh - I don't know what the name is - Lamar? Fannin, but it al co f9 wasn't called that then. It was Stephen F. Austin High School. S - Did you remember how you got to school? Did you walk to school? 2 - We walked. It wasn't but just a few blocks from where we lived. We went to school there, uh, until we were through with the 5th grade and then my daddy had bought some property on the west side of town and we built a house over there. Uh, we went to Bowie school, what they called Bowie school through the 6th grade and then after we went through the 6th grade, they had already put the 7th grade back over to the East side of school up here so we walked across town to that. We walked, uh, sometimes we'd go run back home for lunch. We'd always go back home for lunch. It was, it was a long way. They wouldn't do it now. Never. Then we went on to high school. S - Tell me, uh, did you ever have any experience riding a ferry, a wagon, a horse, or a buggy? - Oh, I rode horseback, I rode a horse back out here almost to where this place is. Just a little dirt road. And, uh, my father was a machinist and he had 2 ponies, and, uh, we rode the ponies when he wasn't using them. I loved riding horseback. S - Did you? - But I didn't drive a car, but I always loved to ride a horse. S - Tell me about riding a bicycle, go cart, or roller skates. 3 - We didn't have a bicycle in our, my brothers didn't have a bicycle. The 2nd one did and I - I learned to ride it, but I never did ride very much on a bicycle. It was a boys bicycle. I didn't ride very much on a bicycle. S - What kind of transportation did you and your family use to 1st get to our area? - Horses, buggies, wagons. S - Why did your family happen to move to this area? - I don't know unless it was just, uh, his, uh, my mothers father lived here. They came here from Georgia. My grandfather came here when my mother was a 6 year old. And, uh, they came by, I've got that written up somewhere, Uh, moved to Bryan, uh landed over here 'round town not very far from Caldwell, and didn't live there very lone, maybe a few 4 months & then they came over to Brazos County & they lived down near the Jones Bridge Road, then. It wasn't exactly where the bridge is now, where, uh, uh the crossing is. It was further west, I know it . It was and here little brother was born down there, at that, uh, on that place. Up from the river, and, uh, course I don't know anything about that because I wasn't born, & he was born in 1876 and that was when A &M opened. My mother was 6 years old when they came to Texas & that was about when she was 7 years old. She remembers it very well. She did remember. Then they moved to this farm where, uh, he lived for a # of years farming. of course my brother went to A &M. My uncle went to A &M we were just little girls, and most of the time my living out there was just visiting my grandfather & grandmother. Then they had a, a mill over there I remember riding with my grandfather & my brother just taking the corn to this mill to be ground &, uh, he had a great big old horse & buggy & he was letting me drive & we came to a gulley & I was scared I didn't, I couldn't, so he took the reigns & he taking the corn over to be milled for meal. SM - I think that's wonderful. What were the 1st roads like in getting to Bryan College from nearby town. WJ- Well, they had a lot of communities around Bryan /Kurten community was a good community. Had a good school there, & then they had a #, Wellborn, um, of course Millican is down 5 that's in, uh, Grimes county & then they had, of course there's Hearne. Hearne was a railroad town, Caldwell, but, uh, having to go by wagon or team or something people didn't go like they do now. That was quite a farm country out there where my grandfather lived & they had a community called Rock Prairie. That's where they went to church, where they, uh, grandfather and uncle they were great workers in the, uh, what do they call it Rock Prairie. And you know they have a Rock Prairie Road out there. SM - What were some of our first paved streets ? WJ - uh, uh I guess, uh maybe 26th Street was paved part of the way I really don't know because there were so this street out here wasn't paved at all. For years & years it wasn't paved. We walked to town from out here all the time I often think of the beautiful homes that were on the way when we walked to town. Big brick homes, by Hutchinson home. Methodists Church, good many of them that I and the Jenkins place, it had an article in the paper about Mr. Jenkins. Where are you from? SM - I'm from here, from Bryan. My maiden name is Villareal WJ - That's your surname? you get there WJ - Houston, Waco. They were the nearest large towns SM - how did you get there WJ - on a train SM - What year did your family get their 1st automobile? WJ - OH SM - Can you tell me what a gallon of gas cost? WJ - Oh I have no idea about that because I was perfectly ignorant about cars. 6 SM - Yes ma'am. How did you go back & forth between Bryan & College Station to do things like shopping, or go to a WJ - We had a buggy & horse. That's the way they did until they were, built a little interurban they called it. Just a small car that was a. I guess it was electric driven. That lasted a few years and then they used buses. There using buses now, I guess. SM - What was the closes big town other that Bryan & how did SM You told me earlier that you never got your drivers license or did you? WJ - No I've had a drivers license SM - How old were you when you took your first train ride? WJ - Oh my heavens. I was riding a train from a baby on. Between here & Houston SM - How much did it cost? WJ - I don't remember. I remember going down there when we, uh, after I grew up and it was 21/2 or 2 dollars round trip. And I have no idea what my daddy paid. SM - What was it like to go to the depot to meet the train? WJ - OH I guess it was wasn't very much excitement then so I guess it was a little thrill. SM - How many passenger cars were with each engine? WJ - you mean on the train? Oh I imagine there's about more than, not more than maybe two SM - Let me turn this page over & I'll you the next questions here. 8 SM - Tell me about the interurban trolley system. Where and how often did it run and how much did it cost? WJ - Oh we would ride it out to what they call Dellwood Park. That's just across from almost across from, uh, the country club. Somewhere in that area, and they had, uh king of, uh, little pond out there, & we'd go out there & maybe sometimes they'd go in & they had, uh, somekind of a blank board that you could ride around, kind of like a, a machines, you know, well this would kind of ride around and we could ride that. I I had so many things burned up not before when I came out here about 2 weeks later somebody broke into my house and got anything that was valuable that I hadn't bought out here. And so I lost all those pictures & I had one sitting on that thing. I just, I guess I was in high school maybe. SM - tell me about the taxi service. What kind of vehicles were used for the taxi service? WJ - I never used taxi's very much. Just once in a while I came in from Waco or Dallas or something after I was grown of course and working. I would get a taxi to bring me back home. 9 SM - Here's a good one for you. Explain the attitude toward hitchhikers during the 20's, 30's, 40's vs the 90's now. WJ - I was working in town in the 20's I went to work at college in 19 I went to work part time in 1931 and then I went to work permanently on a permanent basis in 1932. I first worked for a student publication. They had just started student publication at that time & they had a Mr. Angel that was that had come here an were in an office building over there on military wall. They've town it down now. Finally we went down to, uh, the Administration Building, they called it that time the Administration Building but its the systems building I believe they call it now, I don't know, and uh, we had a big old, big room down there, nothing in it but a desk. I just worked part time there for a month, one year and then went on to Architecture SM - But what about now hitchhikers? WJ - I had a ride to college. My neighbor was working up there so I had and. We paid them you know, to take us. We'd come across town and pick someone else up. i was on the west side of town. She'd have 4 or 5 SM - What was the attitude then, were people nice to hitchhikers, did they not mind picking them up? Kind of like now, nowadays you don't really pick up hitchhikers even /much on the road anymore. Its kinda scary. Ever so often you'll see someone on the road on the side of the road. WJ - OH, yes. Well I don't imagine you do. No we had a congenial crowd all the time. SM - Do you know about what was the distance that some people would hitchhike? Would they hitchhike pretty far like from here to Houston or maybe like from here to Hearne or did they just WJ - well I hardly know what you mean but I know that when I worked I walked from town to my house and it must have been about 13 or 14 blocks and I walked morning and afternoon, and I worked 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. SM - Now Willie, how old are you now? WJ - 99, I'll be 100 next month SM - That is wonderful. That is an inspiration to us all. That the walking is good for us. Rather than just to hop in the car and go everywhere 10 WJ - No we didn't ride very much in the car. There weren't any cars around until later. SM - What about airplane service to B /CS? What kind of planes were there? WJ - I don't know what kind of planes they had. They had, uh, in fact I don't know just when they started that. Easter wood Airport must have been started while I was working out there. It hadn't gotten to far along then. One of our professors built that wind channel out there. SM - Did you have any experience riding in an airplane? Have you ever ridden in one? WJ - Not too much. I've ridden from Dallas to Indianapolis several times and back. Then to Colorado and to Arizona. My last trip was January 1986. I haven't' been on a plane since. SM - Did you know any of the early pilots or airplane owners? WJ - No I didn't. 11 SM - What kind of kind of transportation did you or your family use to get goods or crops to market. Now I believe you told me. I WJ - Will it was just pioneering and airplanes. Trains of course they improved quite a bit and of course you know how they have gone down since. They've improve quite a bit I have ridden on train many times to Indiana. And one time from Chicago to Arizona. WJ - Will I would say there are some wonderful ones in transportation, I don't know how you would answer that question. 12 WJ - Will we didn't have crops to take to market, my family didn't'. My grandfather did but he had a wagon, everything was carried and all like that it a wagon. When he came into town to buy supplies he came in a wagon. A studibaker wagon. SM - What changes in transportation occurred after World War SM - What about after World War II, were there any changes that you saw in Transportation SM - Did you have any family members or friends that worked in the city street department WJ - no SM - or state highway department, or community road department WJ - no SM - Is there any thing else maybe you want to add to our little transportation that you can think of Ms. Johnson WJ - No, I can't think of anything on transportation except that they used horses and carriages and they libery stables and things like that, but we never did use any. SM - Before I end this I want to tell you thank you very much for your time. 13