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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCampus Kids, Oral History taken Aug. 18, 1997INT: You were born at A &M? INT: What was it? Threlkeld Interview Transcription Amber May Threlkeld and CD Threlkeld AMT: I was born right on the line... Now it is in A &M now, but it wasn't right in the middle of the campus. I was born right on the edge of it. But my son was born right in the middle of the campus. But I was born right on the edge of the campus. INT: So you were an Aggie by birth then, born at A &M. You were born an Aggie. AMT: Yeah, that's right. INT: Growing up, do you remember anything on the campus, when you were growing up? AMT: Oh, I remember all kinds of things on the campus. We did almost everything. Everytime they would have drills or anything like that we never missed them, because my momma and daddy loved it. I remember all kinds of things that happened. You know, they don't all come to me at one time, but I remember all kinds of things. I remember lots of the professors and a lot of the cadets. I remember Mr. Kyle, he had an orchard, you know, and he would always bring Momma a big bucket full of peaches to make us peach cobbler out of. And oh, we loved it, we tried to get the peaches, but Momma wouldn't let us. She kept those peaches. And we really loved them. And I remember I had a pet, and you will never guess what my pet was. AMT: It was an old mule, an old mule. I had an old mule pet. And Pappa got him when he was about half grown, and I petted him on up until he was a big mule. And, I'd take him things in my hand to eat, you know, corn and candy and all kinds of things. And you know, that old mule, he just loved me, he would just lick my face and lick my face. INT: Now, they told me that whenever you were a little girl, you used to ride around on a broomstick when the cadets practiced. Tell me about that. AMT: On a broomstick, well, I'll tell you what happened. The boys, the cadets would all be going down to dinner, and they passed in front of our house. And everytme, I'd be watching, `cause I knew what time they were coming. And I'd watch for them, and Momma had given me for Christmas a little red stick broom, just a little toy broom. And boy, I'd run and get in the line with those cadets, and they'd get me and take me in there with them, you know. And I enjoyed that so much, just being with those cadets out there, I thought I was big, marching along with those cadets. INT: What did A &M look like when you were a little girl? Now it's got lots of big buildings. AMT: It didn't have too many buildings on it. It didn't have too many buildings. It had one building I know, and we had a big Christmas party and there was Pete Mataski was his name, and he was playing Santa Claus and in those days, they didn't like their Christmas trees too much with electric lights, so they had candles. And Pete was handing out all the presents to all the children, and he caught on fire. And oh, I started crying and crying because I loved old Pete. But they say it didn't hurt him too much. But I remember very well, his name was Pete Mataski. INT: And he was playing Santa Claus for Christmas? AMT: He was playing Santa Claus, and he was dressed up just like Santa Claus. And oh, there were children all over that place. INT: Was A &M out in the country, was there anything around it back then? Was there anything around the campus back then or was it just out there by itself'? AMT: Anything around the campus? INT: Like a city or anything, or was it like woods and country out by the A &M campus? AMT: Oh, there wasn't much out there, not at that time. There wasn't much out there at that time. But everytime they had commencement. They would have commencement. And Momma would get all us kids ready and we'd never miss commencement. We all enjoyed it. We enjoyed commencement very much. INT: OK, hold on for just a second. Mr. Robinson, do you have any other things you would like to guide me for asking? (inaudible from Mr. Robinson)... In 1912, Main Hall burned on A &M. Do you remember that, when the hall burned down? AMT: Oh yes, I do. And they had the grave all dug out, you know, and there was two ladies that were cadets, they were going to A &M. And she called me, and they had a whole lot of little cedar pretty little things, you know, made like little hearts, and she lifted me down in there, and she helped me to pin those all around in there, and I didn't realize that's what I was doing. I didn't know they were going to bury him in there at that time, you know. But they had all kinds of little cedar things. INT: Well, do you remember when the Main Hall burned? Was there a big fire then? AMT: Oh, yeah. INT: What was that like? AMT: That was just before me and my husband were married. We were married in 1913. It looked terrible, it just looked awful. And my husband had gone up there to mail a letter to me, and after he mailed the letter, he said he heard noises all in the building, and after he had heard those noises, he was working at the College Station power plant, and he said he looked back, and that thing was all in a blaze. And then he spread the news, but it was pretty bad. Of course, I didn't see it, you know, I was at home in bed asleep. But he was working. They had shift work, and he would work in the nights. And he wrote me a letter, we had just become sweethearts at that time. We were pretty young, but you know what happens. And he went back to mail that letter, and when he went back to mail that letter, he heard noises all around the building, upstairs and around, and he just figured somebody had set that building on fire. And he reported it. And it really did, it burned. It was a terrible sight after he woke us all up. INT: Now your husband, where did he work again? Where did your husband work in College Station? AMT: My husband, he didn't go to school at A &M. INT: But he worked in College Station? AMT: He worked in College Station from let's see... He worked from before we were married, it was 1912, and then we stayed there, and we had two children while we lived there, a little girl and a little boy. I think they have the little girl's picture with her grandpa's picture, in there. INT: Were your children born on the campus of A &M? Were your kids born on the campus of A &M? AMT: Both ;of them, uh huh. They were born on the campus. I had a little girl named Anna Lee, and a little boy that was named for his daddy, CD. And that's the only name he's got is CD. He was named Clyde , but he's never been known by anything but CD. If you were to call him something else, he wouldn't know what you was talking about. He is CD. INT: Ms. Threlked, tell me about your great grandfather. Thelandhe gave to A &M. Tell me about that AMT: He died long before my momma and daddy were married. I never knew anyof my grandparents. INT: Were you told anything about him? AMT: Yes, I was told an awful lot, but I've got it all on paper. I couldn't just come right out and tell you all about him, but I know he gave a portion of the land to the University, but Mr. Robinson can tell you more about that than I can. INT: Well, tell me about the Texas Declaration of Independence. I hear you had a relative that was there when that was signed. Can you tell me about that? AMT: Declaration of Independence INT: The Texas Declaration of Independence AMT: Well, honey, I can't tell you too much about that. INT: Oh, well thatls fine then, that's ok. AMT: I can't tell you too much about that. He probably can . I bet he can tell you all about it, but I loved living on the campus, though. We had lots of fun living on the campus. We were always having games of different kinds, you know, and all the children played together, and everybody, you know,they loved each other. There was no fussing or fighting going on or anything like that. INT: When you were a little girl, wht did you think ofal the cadets marching around intheir uniforms. what did you think of the cadets when you werea little girl? AMT: I just loved to look at them. I just loved to look at them march. And we never missed anything;Momma loved it too. She'd dress us up and we all went toevery commencement they had. You know, we never missed one. INT: Tell me about your husband's father. He sold popcorn? AMT: Yeah, I'll tell you, first he was working in the paper mill, and he got his right hand cut off right here, right where it goes on the arm, and he didn't know what to do. Then he would live with my old Auntie until that got well, and then he went down to Galveston to work in... What did he work in CD? I forgot what he worked in? CD: What Momma? AMT: What did Grampa work in , it was some kind of something about the Railroad, and then ,I'll tell you, CD's daddy did shift work at the power plant at A &M. He was working at night, amd I didn't like to stay by myself, I was afraid, I was only 19 years old, and I was afraid to stay by myself, so I wrote Granpa a letter, and I said, " Granpa, I sure wish you would come home, because I'm so afraid to stay by myself." And at midnight, the doorbell rang, we didn't have a doorbell in that little house. He was knocking and knocking and I said, "Who is that ?" And he said, "Honey, this is old Granpappy," he said, "I came home to stay with you so you wouldn't be afraid." And he wouldn't live with none of the rest of hi children. INT: So what did he do on the campus? They told me he sold popcorn. AMT: He stayed with us for a whild and then the builder, Mr. Day, he first bought this little old popcorn machine, and he decided that he didn't want him to, because hewas a builder. And so, Granpa said, "Well, I'd like to have that," Andhe sold it to him. And he went up on the campus selling popcorn and peanuts. And he really did a good job selling popcorn and peanuts. I think CD has his picture. INT: Right, I saw the picture AMT: And I have a little...our little daughter was 3 1/2 years old and just idolized her. So he would take her up there with him and let her run around and play with that little old machine. INT: What did the cadets think of him selling popcorn? Do you think they enjoyed that? AMT: Oh, he just made a fortune selling popcorn and peanuts. They liked it. They did, and I would go out there in the morning and help him pop the corn and peanuts. And then out where we lived our house had a little hill; just a little hill, and I would go and help him push that little thing up the hill, you know . It wasn't old, but it was kind of hard to push it up there, so I helped him push it up there. But he sold lots of peanuts and popcorn. INT: Hold on just a second... INT: Tell me, growing up, did your parents tell you about A &M? What did they tell you about it? Your mom being born there and your dad working in College Station. What was that like for you? CD: Well, all of my aunts and uncles were always telling me weird stories of what my dad would do, and what the cadets would do, but you have to keep in mind, thatl moved away from A &M at the age of 3 months, but we visited every summer. Seemed like the Aurora? Family and the Carsons were just a close knit bunch of pioneers. I guess you would call it. And, in fact, my mother was the sweetheart of the bunch, as I understand, before she met my father. And the Aurora & Carson family would get together, as I said,once a year in College Station, and have a family reunion. The Carson / Aurora Reunion. And, the man my mother was sweenhearts with, married , and then had one son by the name of . And he was a graduate of Rice University, here in Houston, and also a navy fighter pilot, but was shot down in WWII. INT: When you went to these Reunions when you were little, do you remember what College Station looked liked when you were a kid? CD: Well, I wasn't on the campus much, but let me see. The main thing I remember back then, being as young as I was, 3 or 4 years old, they had a sulpher water well there, and the water just smelled awful. And I never did like standing around A &M college too much. My Grandpa Carson, my mothers dad, I can't really tell you what kind of work he did, other than he had a team of mules and horses, and they were building roada. And they didn't have dumptrucks like we have today, so he would let me ride along with him andthe black men on the wagons. We would load it up and then go dump it and come back. As far as the cadets were concerned, I didn't know any of them personally only what my mother and aunts and uncles have told me. I do remember one thing, I couldn't have been over 3 years old, my mothers, next to my mother was Vivian, my uncle, and he had a job as an adolescent cleaning chicken houses around A &M College, and you know, he'd take me with mim to clean those chicken houses, and of course, being as young a I was, I thought I was really big. INT: Now, the way A &M is now, there are sidewalks and big huge buildings and streets and construction. I lnow you were little, but do you remember what it was like then? CD: It was all mud. (Laughter). There wasn't much of a paved read back inthe early 20's. If you got on a paved road back then, it was the super highway. INT: And what about thebuildings on campus? What did they look like? CD: Well, there wasn't any stone or brick buildings, the vest I remember wer old frame buildings. But I really can't tell you too much about the buildings itself. My mother could tell you a lot better, a lot more than I could, because by the time I was about 7 years old I never did go back anymore. INT: What else do you remember about that area when you were little? CD: Well, we were only there for a few days at a time during those reunions, say 2 or 3 days. INT: Tell me bout this house, Right there. CD: Well, behind there, thatls atent. Mother and daddy for the first 2 months of their married life they lived in tents and had wooden floor board and a Canvas top as I understant it correctly. And then the house that lived in was originally lived in by professor Bolton, and I think his nickname was Spud Bolton. Then there was Red Dewey, I remember mother and daddy taling about him a lot. Then Mr. McMillan which was this house here, and he was my idol. Well, he was quite a character. He must have been over my daddy in A &M College power plant. Now Mr. McMillan, CD McMillan, incidentally the same name as mine got a job at Central Fire Lane Company in Laredo, TX, and that's when mother and daddy moved from A &M College to Pieree, Texas, to take on a job with Central Fire Line Company as a district manager. That had to be in 1919, 1920. Somewhere along in ther and then from there I don't suppose went back to A &M College until during the 30's. I was a teenager then. INT: How had it grown by the 30's. What was it like there, then? CD: The reason I went there, I took a college course and wanted to go to A &M when I graduated from high school in Houston. But, during the depression days, I couldn't afford it, and I couldn't get in on a college scholarship because I wasn't good enough at football. I ended up not going to college. INT: Well, when you went back there in the 30's, what did it look like? CD: Oh, you couldn't believe it, you couldn't believe it. I wouldn't even know it today. INT: Were any of the buildings there like now, like Kyle Field? CD: No, Kyle Field wasn't there. My mother knew Mr. Kyle, the man that the field was named after, but I didn't know him. INT: So, was there anything there in the 30's that you think is still there? CD: No, could be, but I haven't been on the campus since '37 or '38. The last time I was on campus, I've driven by it on several occasions. INT: Tell me aboutthis picture here. CD: (Laughs!) I was 3 months old, not much to tell tell. That is the same house that I was born in, that Spud Bolton lived in, the professor. INT: Who is that in the washtub? CD: Thatls me. 4 months old. That was the smae house, approximately 2 blocks from the power plant. INT: You were born on the campus of A &M. CD: That's right. INT: Alot of people there have a joke, they say, "Texan by birth, and an Aggie by the Grace of God," but you're an Aggie by birth. CD: That's right, that's right. Started off in college and ended up in kindergarden. I have a story that I've told to John and some others. My mother had to direct me on the night I was born. Cadets apparently loved my mother and daddy. To play a joke on my daddy, they kidnapped me so that I was born in this house, not a hospital. What do they call those...Midwife. Well anyway, a doctor was there, I forgot the doctors name, but he was on his way to Bordeaux, France for WWI. He was at the depot, and daddy got in the old 1913 Model T Ford and went to the depot and got the doctor and brought him back to this house, and Ma McMillanwas a midwife and I was born in the company of the McMillans. They told me repeatedly that my daddy offered to pay the doctor 3 dollars for delivering me, but the doctor said, "No Clyde, I don't need the money where I'm going." This is Bordeaux, France. "Just pay me when I come back, well the doctor never returned, he was killed somewhere in France." So, there was always a joke that I was a Freeloader. I don't know how many days after that, but condancy kidnapped me, and ook me to another part of the dormatories. Mom was histerical and they told daddy and he got mad and turned off the power to the dormatories until they got me back. Well, they were not holding me for ransom, but for a practical Aggie joke on my mother and father. INT: I guess there were the first Aggie Jokes. They were a long time ago. CID; It's nearly eighty years, It will be in Feburary. INT: What is this contraption here, that you have on your lap? CD: Well, this is the enfive that drove the popcorn machine and the peanut roaster, it drove peanut roasters, and ti had a little bottle that you don't see in the picture and it was run off pure alcohol. INT: Now this is an old picture, did you have to fix this up at all. CD: It was workin then and still workin today. This engive is older than I any. I was born in February of 1918, and my granpa died in September 1918, so naturally I can't say I knew my grandpa because I was just 8 months old when he died. INT: But this is the steam engine. CD: Yes this is the steam engine that powered that popcorn poper. INT: Now where is this headed, or what are you going to do with this? CD: I am going to donate it, me and my mother, would like to give it back to the A &M college, and put it in a museum there, along with some other pictures they have that we have already donated. INT: Why are you donating thi, and do you tink it is important to preserve the history? CD: Little lady its just like this, you were never going to see a steam engine in your life. Maybe young people or your children would like to go through the museum and see this and say " whay is that thing ?" Well, its a steam engine, you know back I those days, steam engines were the only thing that could create electrisity. They would have a belt that would go around this and soen here they would have a generator, and the generaor would generate electricity to run our lightbulbs, and so forth, but this is, they can read it on here how old, well it is older than I am, and I am practically 80 years old, and grandpa had this, I don't , he had to be sellin peanuts and popcorn 7 or 8 yers before I was born. INT: Well that is great that you're donating it. CD: Well, I hope A &M will enjoy it as much as I have played with it as child all my life, I've kept it actually, it has never been pointed, this is it's original style that it came in. Now this SOME OTHER MAN DESCRIBING PICTURES. 1. The picture your looking at now is a popcorn machine that Dee Wit Clinton Thrillkill the Mother in Law of Amber May, he used to sell popcorn and peanuts on the campus of A &M College for 3 1/2 year, he lost his arm in a planermill accident in Keenin Texas. 2. This is a picture of residene taht Mr. & Mrs. Thrillkill lived in, that isthe actually the center of A &M college back between 1910 to 1918. They lived in a tent back behind the house for a couple of months immediatly following their marriage. Then they moved into this home. This is the home in which their two children were born on the campus of Texas A &M. 3. This is a picture of the Thrillkill house located on the campus of Texas A &M. The child sittin in the wash pale is CD Thrillkill Jr. who was born in the house and on to campus of A &M. He was about four months in the picture, 1918. 4. This picture was when CD Thrillkill Jr. visited A &Mwith some of his relatives and they were riding in a wagon there on the campus area of Texas A &M. 5. This picture is of the same wagon, with CD Thrillkill Jr. in the wagon. He was born on campus at Texas A &M. 6. This picture is of CD Thrillkill Jr. and Ambermay Thrillkill, and the baby is their daughter, who was also born on the campus of Texas A &M, who was born in 1914, her name was Annalee Thrillkill. 7. This is a picture of Ambermay Carson who's family was well known asa developers around College Station and Bryan. They were a pioneer family, and even some of their ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, when Texas declared themselves our independent state. That is Mrs. Thrillkill, whom you have just interviewed, and is now 103 years of age.