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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Old Days Panel Group 02III �n o'f?uE' List of photos. documents. mans. etc. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE City of College Station, Texas 77840 ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed. Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of, any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. r-CG la 1r a/0. de - 4 Interviewee (Please print) Signatur9,of Interviewee Name A /? 3 Address Interviewer (please Print) 4444 t-eAl ig4ture of Interviewer Place of Interview 714.s' Telephone Date of Birth •2 6‘y Place of Birth "?.(2,75:11,, INTERVIEW STATUS: Completed Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property, arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in whole or in part from the negligence of city. Date Initial In progress (--,)(07kp I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed. Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of, any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. Interviewee (Please print) Interviewer (Please Print) El/ el') / / / i it Signature of Inte iewer Place of Interview HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE City of College Station, Texas 77840 ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET List of photos. documents. mans. etc. Signature of Interviewee Name INTERVIEW STATUS: Completed Date Initial In progress r')1444efee 4 f , t-C( L 41Fi..n Address U Telephone Date of Birth _V / " r 4 20/ Place of Birth %rz.,az HOT /)0cter irn CS '171re Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property, arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in whole or in part from the negligence of city. I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed. Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of, any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. Interviewer (Please Print) SignsAure of Inte 'ewer 4a 4t Place of Interview List of nhotos. documents. mans. etc. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE City of College Station, Texas 77840 ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET Interviewee Olease print) at nature of wiewee Name Ae0 Vie Address ,7? 7b Telephone Date of Birth Place of Birth INTERVIEW STATUS: Completed Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property, arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in whole or in part from the negligence of city. Date Initial In progress HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE City of College Station, Texas 77840 ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed. Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of, any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. /D Vt� I/ /i a144 Interviewee (Please print) E7 /PA �^ r Int iewer(Please Print) Signature of Interviewer 1:41 t ! Place of Interview List of photos. documents. mans. etc. Signature of Interviewee Name Date Initial P-tbU 014 Address 3 3 000,41 #" Telephone Date of Birth / /L / ` / Place of Birth t! ,e/ jx eirrytip INTERVIEW STATUS: Completed In progress Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property, arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in whole or in part from the negligence of city. Lincoln Center The Old Days Oral History July 30, 1996 Oral History - July 30, 1996 Interviewees - Arcadia Valadez, Tommy Ellis, Mozelle Williams, Laudencia Hernandez Moderator - Ellen Horner EH - And Mrs. .. AV - My name is Arcadia Valadez and I'm from College Station, Texas. And I've been in Bryan since 1945, in a retirement place in the Lulac Hill in College Station. EH - OK. Yes the Lulac Hill. AV - That's where I live now. EH - Oh, that's a very pretty place. AV - Most of the time I stay in Bryan, since 1945. EH - Pam is there some one who can interpret if she just gives it in Spanish? PE - Yes I believe Sylvia can. EH - Miss can you tell her just to say it in Spanish and that will be OK. AV - Say in Spanish your name. LH - My name is Laudencia Hernandez. EH - Can you speak up a little bit. AV - How long have you lived in Bryan? LH - Laudencia Hernandez, since 1926, the 23rd of August was when we moved to Mumford. That's where we lived. EH - OK, um, Mr. Ellis we need you to introduce yourself, and tell us how long you've lived here. TE - My name is Tommy Ellis. I've lived here all my life. EH - OK, so um, did your grandparents live here? TE - Sure. (my grandparents lived here also.) EH - So your grandparents and uh you go back a long way don't you? TE - Yes, a long way. EH - OK. and Mr. Ellis what was your occupation? What did you do to work? TE - I was a farmer earlier in life then I became a carpenter. EH - Carpenter, OK. Did you work on houses, or did you... TE - I grew my own cotton, hay and maze. I also contracted out to larger farmer. In carpentry I helped build the previous Ramada Inn and several buildings on A &M campus. I worked for Spain -Glass for several years. EH -OK, What were your parents names? TE - My parents were named Orange and Annie Ellis. EH - Did they live in the Brushy area also? TE - Yes, they lived in the Brushy area. EH - Mozelle, I am going to go back to you now. Did your parents and grandparents live in the area? MW - My mother and father, we lived in Wellborn, TX at that time but we move to College Station in 1940 and we moved from one place to where we're at now. Our home, right off 2818 been there since 1948. EH - OK and what did your father do? MW - My father was a farmer in his life time but my father passed when I was nineteen years old. EH - Farming was the thing to do in this area. MW - That was our thing to do then. Then my mother she worked private homes, that's all. After my father passed. EH - And Senora Valdez. AV - My daddy works at A &M in the yards, he used to worked there and my mother worked at the laundry. American Laundry, in Bryan, she was working there. EH - And what about your grandparents? AV - Oh, my grandparents were from Bastrop, they worked on the farm, mostly. EH - OK, but they never lived here? AV - No just my daddy. EH - Ok, would you ask Mrs. Hernandez these questions? AV - Tell her who your mother and father? LH - They lived in the county of Bastrop? EH - They lived in Bastrop, too. AV - In Bastrop. EH - OK and her parents, OK her parents did... AV - They worked on the mines. EH - Oh, OK Now then let's talk a little bit about what kind of transportation we had in this area when you were little, it's a lot of different than what it is today. AV - I walked from Bryan to College Station to work in the Laundry American, was the name of this laundry in College Station I worked there in 1966. EH - OK and Ms. Williams. MW - When we were living on the farm, the wagon and mules, that's the way we got around ,the wagon and mules. EH - OK, how did you go to school? MW - Well we went to school the teacher that taught us she lived in Bryan. Before then we walked to school. You know they used to not go no further than where we lived back then. You went to school , and say you finished the seventh grade. At that time, you had to go to Bryan to go to school and then you had to go some place else. EH - Oh. MW - Now Mr. Cany Burr he is dead now, I can't remember what year that was. He had bought a bus and he would take the children that had finished the seventh grade,he'd take them to Cromp High School on that bus. But I never did go. EH - OK. MW - I finished the seventh grade then I went to Houston to my cousin's and stayed two months and I went to school down there. And then my father and mother didn't have the money to pay and I had to go back home. And I didn't finish nothing but the seventh grade and two months in the eighth grade. EH - Not what my mother did Ok now Mr.Ellis, how did you get around when you were going to school, when you were a little boy? TE - I had to walk to school. Fannie Diggs was my teacher. She also taught seven of my children. EH - What was that name again now? TE - Fannie Diggs. EH - Fannie Digs did you get that Oh, and did you ever make trips out of town? Did you ever make trips out of town? Did Anybody? AV - Yea, we went on the train. EH - You went on the train, oh the train that came to College Station? MW - Yes madam we stopped it before they taken up the iron 10 railroad track it was a tool train. This is the Southern Pacific over here now and they took up the tracks from Navasota to Bryan. College Station on to I -10 it don't run any more. It runs from Navasota on to College Station and then in Bryan you know it goes on out. EH - Right, ok did you take trips very often of just about in-the summer time just once a year? MW - Once a year. EH - It was a real treat wasn't it? MW - Yeah. EH - Ok, Did any of you ever ride horses back when you lived on the farm. MW - Yea, I did I used to love to ride. We had horse I loved to ride. EH - Mr. Ellis? TE - I rode horse back some in my lifetime. EH- Oh did you have saddles on the horses? MW - Yes. EH - I see a number of kids riding around today . Riding bare -back. MW - Bareback, I never did like to ride bareback I had to have a saddle. EH - Had to have a saddle. What about you Mrs.Valedez? AV - I had horses. EH - Did you ride saddle or bareback. AV - Saddle. EH - Saddle. Mr. Ellis, I bet you rode bareback. TE - Yes, I rode bareback. EH - Yea, OK what about your church life? I missed you . Can you asked her how, if she took trips. AV - When you went on trips, in what did you travel. LH - In a buggy. EH - In a bugu. OK, very good. What about your church life, Ms. Williams? MW - I joined Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. I was born in 1910. When I was thirteen years old I joined Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in 1923, and I still member there now on the twenty-first of this month we had our 100 year anniversary right down here on 1216 Detroit Street. EH - Oh, how wonderful. MW - And I've been there ever since. EH -OK MW - Yea, the first year from 1930 until 1937 I served as the Sunday school secretary and my superintendent was Deacon Marian Carter at that time. EH - Marian Carter. MW - Marian Carter, sister named Twila. EH - OK, Mr. Ellis where did you go to church? TE - I attended Allen Chapel Methodist Church and am still a member. I joined at an early age. EH - OK, I'm familiar with that church. Mrs. Valadez? AV - I was born and my family was Baptist and my grandma was a Methodist, but I was raised in the Baptist church. I was nine years old when I was baptized in Bastrop. EH - OK, are you still a Baptist? AV - Yes Maam, since then I been a babtist I never change no other church. Going to Bryan Sim's Street in Bryan, First Baptist Church, that's where that was... EH - And Mrs. Hernandez? AV - What church do you attend? LH - Since I was born I went to the Catholic Church. EH - Sometimes today we have lots of rain, we don't know what rain is right now, do we? And the creeks would flood and the Brazos River would flood , and thw Narasod would flood. huh were there how would you. This may go back to far but were there bridges for you to cross did you ever use boats to cross. MW - No I didn't live across the river. AV -We did,Idid. EH - OK, can you? AV - In 1935 they had a big flood in Bryan in College Station we ride In wagons with four mules pushing the wagons, this would take us to the big high school on the top of the hill, they'd take us over there and take us groceries and stuff to cart too, It was scary. EH - Do you remember any bad floods when you were growing up or since then? TE - I was born in 1912, then the 1913 flood came. It was really bad. EH - So you don't remember that one do you? TE - No, my parents often talked about it. MW - I was two years old. EH - OK, what were the roads like? They were terrible. Everybody agrees. AV - In 1935 I believe it was some gravel road on Wellborn road we use to walk on Wellborn road from the County to College Station. There was a little store in College Station. EH - Do you remember the name of the store? Where was it located? AV - On Wellborn Road EH - On...? AV - Name of that street we called it Wellborn. EH - Wellborn, Wellborn OK. Is it still there? AV - Yes madam, Oh that store I don't think so. EH - Sometimes they don't last. AV - It was a real old store and they have gravel roads on the streets at that time. EH - Right. how were the roads between College Station and Bryan. Do you remember Mr. Ellis? TE - The roads were gravel and mostly rough. AV - We use to go At the Humpty Dumpty store we use to stop right there. with wagons and mules. EH - Stop where,at the humpty dumpty store? AV - At the humpty dumpty store we use to stop in the wagon with mules EH - Where was the Humpty Dumpty store? AV - I think it was in Bryan it's still in the same place on Bryan Street. EH - Is it still called Humpty Dumpty? AV - No. EH - Is that where the Piggly Wiggly Store was? AV - No. EH - No, it wasn't, OK. MW - Edges was over here on Main Street and the next street face Edges that Humpty Dumpty was right there. EH - Oh, it was downtown, OK. MW - Downtown. EH - OK, tell me about when you got your first automobile. Mr. Ellis TE - Oh, let's see now, my first car was an old Ford. I forgot what year it was. EH - What color was it? TE - It was black. EH - OK, was it two door? TE - Yes, it was a two door black Ford. EH - Ford, probably a model T. TE - Sure it was a Model -T Ford. EH - OK, Ms. Williams do you remember when you got your first one? MW - Well my husband and I in 1954 we borrowed we were farming at that time me and the children we worked out the crop and he was working on the railroad track. He bought a brand new 1954 Chevrolet it was the first car we ever owned. EH - OK, what color was it? MW - Blue, but it had one of them long? EH - OK, was it two door or four door? MW - Two door. EH - So the children wouldn't fall out the back. O.K. Ms. Valadez. AV - In 1940 my daddy bought us a car so he wanted me to drive it because I was the oldest in the family. And I never drived. And so he bought a brand new Chevrolet green the top was black,it was a pretty car, brand new, he bought it over here in Waco. In Waco Texas I never learned to drive. EH - You still don't drive? AV - No, maam. EH - You don't drive either? MW - No I never did. EH - You drive though? TE - Sure, I have been since I was real young. AV -My brother Learn how to drive he was 11 years old and he learn how to drive. At that time you don't need no license no insurance, nothing. EH - Right, Would you ask Mrs. Hernandez. AV - What was the first year that you had a car? LH - In 1925 we first bought a pick -up truck. In 1923 I got married. EH - Where did you go to elementary school? Mr.Ellis. TE - I went to elementary school at the Brushy School. EH - OK you've already told us that and you went to... MW - Pleasant Grove, there's a school down there that at Wellborn, Texas. EH - OK, Pleasant Grove OK and that school is not there anymore is it ? MW - No it's gone since in the thirties. EH - OK, and Ms. Valadez AV - We were living on the other side of Navasota. And I went to school it was in 19 I'm not sure if it was in 1946 or 47 it was in Courtney, the other side of Navasota, Courtney I was living there working, chopping cotton and picking cotton unless I was in school. The school is still there in Courtney, Texas. EH - OK, where did you go to school? AV - Where did you go to school? LH - I went to school in Bastrop. EH - In Bastrop, OK. When you went to school Mr. Ellis did you have several grades or were there different grades in one room? TE - We had several grades in one room. EH - OK, like how many do you remember? TE - I think there was six. EH - Six grades in one room, OK. And did it go to the sixth grade. I mean did you have six grades or did you have highschool in that room also. TE - No. EH - No high school. MW - I know he didn't because we didn't have it. EH - OK. MW - We didn't have high school. Now I went to school there was this great big long building. They had first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade. We were all in under roof one great big house long building. There were no partitions no where. Everybody had seats on this side here was an aisle and seats over there. EH - And you know Ms. Williams that was probably one of the first open class room. MW - Open class rooms. EH - That was open class rooms you know that was what the old high school was built for it was built for open class rooms and that was the new method. MW - I went from the first grade down to the seventh grade. EH - And when you finished one year you just moved up to the next section. MW - That's right. EH - How many teacher did you have? MW - I had two teacher at that time one taught from the first through the third grade and the other she taught from the fourth grade to the seventh grade. We had two teachers that was all. EH - OK. OK. MW - One was named Katie Tolden and the other was named Julia Muckleroy. EH - Muckleroy. MW - Muckleroy. EH - Judy Muckleroy. MW - Julia. EH - Did you get that? Julia and the first on was? MW - Katie Tolden. EH - Katie Colden. MW- Tolden T- O- L- D -E -N, she's dead now. EH - OK, and how many teacher did you have Mr. Ellis? TE - Just one. EH - She was busy wasn't she? TE - Sure, she was quite busy. EH - Well, did she give you assignments and then you had to work on those in silence and behave yourself? TE - Sure. EH - Ms. Valadez, how was your school arranged? AV - My teacher was Alice Miller from Hockley, Texas, close to Houston. She was my teacher, she was a real nice younger lady. EH - Did you have several grades in one classroom? AV - Yes in one room, all the classes in one room. There was first grade first and then we were in the second, third, and the fourth all in the same room. EH - And I bet ask Ms. Hernandez if she did the same thing. AV - Did you have just one school and how many teachers did you have? LH - Just one teacher would come to Bastrop. EH - Let me ask you something did you get to go to the next grade before the end of the year like if you finished the work , or did you have to wait to the end of the year before you went to the next grade? MW - We went to the I guess the first grade, all right and leave the first grade and when school was out and if you made your grade you would move up to the second grade, if you made your grade in the third grade next year you'd go up to the fourth grade like that. EH - OK, but during the year there was not any changing? MW - No, no. EH - OK, so... MW - At least there wasn't where I went to school at. EH - OK, What type of recreation was available for young people? I mean like here we have a recreational center, we have a community center. What...? MW - We didn't have nothing like that we had let me see a 1920, 24, 26, and 27 we had a basketball coach and the lady who taught us how to play basketball, she is dead now her name is Mary Wells. And we learned from that. The girls had a baseball team, and the boys played baseball with the boys. But that's all we had. EH - All right. When you were very small did you make up games to play. MW - We'd do it maybe and we'd play hop - scotch they call it. We put a scarf down and we played horseshoes. EH - What did you play when you were a little boy Mr.Ellis? TE - We shot marbles. EH - Did you like to play baseball? TE - Sure, I played baseball and I enjoyed it. AV - I played baseball when I was on a team in the baseball and I like to play marbles I use to play with the boys...but they didn't like me cause I beat'em always at marbles. EH - You girls didn't play dolls? Did you have dolls when you were little? AV - A lot of dolls. MW - We had dolls at home at Christmas. EH - That's going to be my next question. Tell me about Christmas when you were little. MW - In Christmas when I was little, back there the church didn't have things like what we do now. And we didn't have no that stuff like breakfast food and stuff like that. We didn't know what cereal and stuff like that was. My mother would give us a biscuit, we'd eat certain bread and rice, salt and bacon and that's what we ate. EH - And this was all Christmas morning? MW - Oh no not on Christmas. EH - That was every day. MW - That's on through the week. Now, she raised chickens and she'd put them chickens in the......and feed them and then she'd clean them out and then she'd kill them chickens and she'd cook them. EH - And that was fried chicken, real fried chicken. OK well tell me about your Christmas celebration. MW - Christmas celebration on the nineteenth of June we'd have ice cream, Christmas we'd have turkey and now my father raised hogs, we have pork. He'd kill a hog We put him in a pen and the one he was going to kill he put him in there and feed him corn. EH - Fatten him up. MW - Yea fatten him up. And then they killed him for Christmas and my mother would make sausage. My mother would cook, bake cakes and she always bought a ham for Christmas and we raised turkeys too. Sometimes when some of her relatives was coming she'd have a ham and a turkey and she'd bake cakes and potato pies. EH -Sweet potato pies. MW -Yes, ma'am. EH - OK, Mr. Ellis tell us about your celebration of special days. TE - Christmas? EH - Did you put up decorations, did you have decoration? TE - Sure, because we learned to make some. MW- Well we didn't... EH - A lot of people didn't. Did your mother fix special foods? Like what, did she bake cakes? TE - Yes my mother made turkey and dressing and she always made cakes and pies. EH - Ms. Valadez? AV - My Grandma used to cook a lot for Christmas, make tamales, make corn tortillas, and make skin pigs. What do you call use fried...? EH - Chitlins AV - Chicharroes. EH - Chicarones AV - Christmas, they'd make some pies, pumpkin pies, my mother used to raise some pumpkins big ones, to make some pies for Christmas. A lot of food all week, we use to have a lot of pies cakes and cookies, make some cookies with raisins, and with pecans make some cookies. We had a lot of food on the farm for the holidays. EH - OK, would you ask Ms. Hernandez about her celebrations? LH - My mother would make some sweet bread. AV - How do you call that bread with yeast? EH - I don't know that. Is that some Spanish, Mexican bread? The only thing I know is pan deulce and that's sweet bread... AV - Mexican bread, put a little bit of sugar and cream on the top. And for decoration we used to get some string and put some popcorn decorate the tree, big tree. My grandpa used to bring a big tree to our house, we use to decorate with that and we used to make some little things with paper and we'd hang it on the tree. EH - We did that when I was little too. OK, did you have a tree? AV - Big tree. EH - Did you go out in the... AV - In the woods it was closer that's what we used to do. MW - Just two, nobody home just me and my sister and she just cook and we didn't have not a tree. You know I got grown myself. EH - And you had your own children? MW - And I had my own children and we had trees and always had Christmas with them. And in my lifetime, my mother and father, they was old, and they didn't have a lot of... EH - Mr. Ellis when you were little, did you have a Christmas tree? TE - No, we didn't have no Christmas tree. EH - A lot of people don't. It seems to be kind of an American custom. Do you remember the depression? MW - Oh, yes I still do. It was in 1930. EH - Right. How did that effect your family Mrs. Williams? MW - Well I married on the seventh day of June 1930, and I picked cotton for thirty cents a hundred and I cried like a baby. Great big long sacks, as long as this table. A hundred pounds of cotton for thirty cents. I cried like a baby hurting from my heart `cause I never had seen nothing like that. It was right down here on Wellborn Road, on this side, right on this side of where that cafe is. I can't think of the name of it now, but anyway, it's right on 6, not 6, 2818, not 2818, 2154 on Wellborn Road. And I picked cotton before he got all that, all on that side of the road all along there. EH - Who owned that property? MW - Mr. Jolly Jones owned it at that time. EH - Was that a big plantation? MW - Yes it was. There wasn't but one road and that's the road that goes now. But it always wasn't on this side of the track. The road used to be on the other side. Some parts crossed the track. EH - Mr. Ellis, do you remember the depression? TE - Sure, I can't remember to much about it. I just can't remember like I used to. EH - Right. Right. You just know it was hard times. TE - Sure. That's right. EH - Right. Mrs. Valadez AV - Yeah it was hard. We used to chop cotton sixty cents a day, an hour I mean, from six o'clock till seven at night. And we had to walk way to the country to the field. EH - We're glad you don't have to do that today. MW - My grandchildren isn't having none of that. EH - Right. AV - When we say we come from a long way we come from a long way. Some of us, we didn't maybe not...thank God. MW- Every where we go we had to walk... EH - Right, right. Do you feel like that having to do so much was better for you in building you character and how you turned out than what the children today have? MW - Yes it was better then. Cause children now a days, they ain't no children, they all seem like they grown folks cause they tell their parents what to do. We didn't tell our parents what to do. We done what our parents said to. And you say something to a child now, "You better not hit me, I'm gonna dial 911." If 1 would of had one back then that told me that, he wouldn't ever say it no more. Cause we had switches and we whipped our children and they mind. We didn't mind them. They had to do what we said. But now these children are born grown. They say you ain't gone make me I ain't gonna do nothing. It's good I didn't have one back there like that cause when I go through with him he wouldn't say it no more. I whipped my children. And I said no, I meant no. And they'd hear me and feel it. Sure would. AV - I raised nine children. EH - You had nine children Mrs. Valadez? AV - I raised nine, five boys and four girls. EH - That's amazing. AV - And I raised two grand children and one great grand children myself and I never had no problem, and I was a baby sitter. That's cause I didn't have my kids, I baby sitter. About two years, and I never have problem with the kids. I have six kids that I baby sit. I never have problems with my children. I say you not going no where and you... I didn't have no problems. I keep them in my yard. I never had problems. EH - They knew what to do. AV - And now my great grand children, I don't get the one great grand children for one year and one day I babysit for one day. MW - And you can't do nothing with him. AV - I'm a baby sitter for one day. EH - What do you tell their Momma? You just say you just not gonna keep `em? AV - I tell her I'll keep `em. But you got to buy hamburger, buy what ever he wants right there. I don't have much money to buy that stuff every day. EH - OK, You're just not gonna do it. I don't blame you. I wouldn't either. I don't. OK, How did World War II effect you Mr. Ellis? TE - It didn't. EH - It didn't. You weren't in, didn't serve in, you weren't in the service or didn't do anything? TE - No. EH - You didn't have anything to do out at the air field or anything? TE - No. EH - Mrs. Williams, do you remember? MW - Sure I do. EH - OK. MW - A lot of my mothers friends had to go, all then passed on now, but I remember, a lot of them came by my mother and father's house on their way to... You know, they's coming by, you know to tell them good bye and ask them to pray for them and they went on to... And some of them were able to make it back home after the war. After the war was declared ..., and some wasn't. But I remember it so well. I sure do. I can remember the first air plane that came home. We were living on the farm in 1918. And that scared us to death cause we didn't know what all that noise was. We hadn't ever seen one before. And we was just about... we didn't know what had happened. And so some people who lived not too far from us and the man came by on the horse and he told Mamma, "That's an airplane." And that's the first airplane they had down there that we seen. We didn't know what it was till he told us. He was scared that we didn't know what to, what we thought it was. EH - Yeah. MW - We was just scared. EH - Did you have any family members who, huh. MW - Went to service? EH - Uh, huh. MW - No, sure didn't. Neither one of my brothers. They both was grown but the didn't go. Sure didn't. EH - Mrs. Valadez? AV - I don't remember this. EH - Don't, don't remember. I don't remember too much about it. MW - 1918. EH - 1918. This question isn't on my little handout here, but, OK, let me ask you what you think is wrong with the children today. How do you think we could better handle our children? MW - Well, I say, but I don't think that the children ought to see as much television, things on television. These kids know now, I didn't know when I was near thirty years old. I had to learn things. Now a days these children know everything. They can tell you something. I was grown and married before I learned some of the things that these kids know right now. And they want to look at every thing, they show everything on TV You can't tell them, about you ain't seen this. They know everything cause they see everything. Some of them let them set up half of the night watching stuff they ought a not even see. When I was twelve years old I didn't know nothing about nothing these children know now. And some of them ain't but seven or eight years old. They see to much. That's the reason they know so much. EH - Right. Mrs. Valadez, with nine children you ought to have a good opinion. MW - It's just like another world now. AV - My kid's didn't see much television. When I had my kids, I got a television nineteen uh, I don't know when we first had our television. We never had a color television. We just worked. All my kids worked since nine years old, they started work. The girls worked at the Dairy Queen and my boys worked at the Food Town. My oldest boy, he worked at the Food Town. He cleaned at Food Town and pick up and delivered some roses on the bicycle or walking. All my kids work since they was little kids. That's all we know so that's what we learned. Make them learn, you know, something. My girls too. Make them learn how to sew, how to embroidery, how to cook, everything they learned. EH - OK, when you were growing up did your family have a garden? AV - Oh, yes mam. EH - And what... AV - We used to have a real good garden. Peppers grow about this big. They plant it close to the wells, they used to have wells a long time ago in the country and they plant pepper right close to the water. We used to grow a lot of pickles and I would put them in jars. Every where. Pickles and tomatoes, and peppers. EH - Cantaloupe? AV - Cantaloupe. We used to raise watermelon. My daddy used to sell some watermelons in the wagon. We would fill up the wagon, go into town, sell some watermelons. By the house in the country. EH - Okra? AV - Okra, corn all that stuff. My mother used to can some corn. Can some corn. We used to have a machine to seal the corn. EH - Yeah, right, my mother had that too. AV - Meat, everything. EH - Yeah, You had a big garden Ms. Williams. MW - Yes ma'm. I sure did. We didn't have to buy anything. We raised, we stayed on the farm, my husband plant black eye peas, he plant peas, and we'd plant peas pinto beans and we had enough pinto beans to share some. Put them in a big croaker pot we'd call them. Sacks of them peas and pinto beans. And we would put them in a big tall can. And we would have beans and peas from one season to the other. And we had lots of hogs. We raised hogs and we would kill off, and we had our own meat and sausage. We would cure our meat and stuff like that. And the sausage we had a big oh old can, we would by this oil and put the sausage in that and they wouldn't get rank. We had a good garden and I had a canner. That's after I married. I had a canner and a sealer that my husband bought. And we would buy these cans and canned the fruit. can the peas. We would have dried peas and we would have fresh peas. Like we canned also. And I made jelly and I made preserves. EH - What kind of jelly did you make? MW - Grape jelly and plum jelly. EH - Wild grape jelly? MW - Wild grape. And we would buy pears and we would make pear preserves. Down here at A &M College where all those apartments is down there now, that's where we bought pears, from all them people there, where all them houses down there on Rock Prairie where all that wasn't nothing but just farmland. she had pear trees and plum trees. We would go there and buy stuff from them and made jelly and stuff. EH - Did you ever pick wild dewberries? MW - Yes mam. We had plenty of berries. We had our grand children. I still makes that when I can find the berries. EH - What about you Mr. Ellis. Did you have a garden after you were married? TE - Sure, my wife and I taught our children to help plant, harvest, and can or freeze things from our big garden. EH - And what did you grow? TE - Black eye peas and cream peas and we had cantaloupe, watermelons, corn,tomatoes,okra,peppers all types of greens. EH - So you didn't have to go to the grocery store, did you? TE - No, because we had our own hogs and cows and we processed our own meats including chickens and ducks- even our own milk,eggs and butter. EH - You had something everyday? TE - That's right. My wife was a great cook and she loved doing it. EH - Right. And I bet with nine children you had a big garden too. AV - Yes mam. And my kids liked to have a garden. Everywhere they move they were renting apartments, they'd plant some garden, right there. EH - Yeah. AV - Squash. EH - Mrs. Hernandez, ask her about her garden when she was little. AV - Yeah, her husband loved to have a garden. AV - They had cows and cats. EH - So you had your own milk? All of you had your own milk? AV - All the time we don't need to buy nothing. We had everything. EH - You were self - sufficient. TE - Sure. MW - We had cows. I had milk and butter I used to churn and I still got my churn right now. EH - Do you really? MW - It's just about that tall. And it had ,you know, a top on that, and you could churn it like that and make better. EH - You know that's an antique. AV - We also used to make some cheese. EH - Do any of you have any pictures from the early days that you would let Sylvia borrow to make copies of? MW - I don't have any. EH - You don't have any pictures. A lot of people don't have any. They find pictures of old houses and things like that when we ask people. Can you think of anything else that you would like to share with people who don't know how it was back in the old days. MW - Back in my time when my mother and father was raising up, it was really hard. My daddy was old and he couldn't do too much work. But he could farm but other work, he couldn't do nothing much, we just, we just was on the farm and we had cotton and corn and have watermelons and you know a big garden and stuff like that. But, otherwise after he gets in his crop, he don't work for nobody else. My mother, she always find something to do, somewhere. some of the white people would hire her and she would go and you know clean their house and wash and iron and things like that. And me and my sister, we would pick cotton other places to help get us clothes to wear to school. EH - Did you make you own clothes too, or did... MW - No, we didn't make them. I didn't make them cause I didn't know how. But my mother had a friend, she didn't stay too far from us, and she would make our dresses what we go to school in. And Momma, when they had money, they would go and purchase some that we did a lot cheaper. Buy some material and this lady would always make us some dresses to wear to school. And a lot of times she would have some old coats and things she would give my mother and we would wear them. Cause we didn't have no money. EH - Right, right. Mrs. Valadez, did you make your children's clothes? AV - Yes mam. I used to sew myself. And my mother used to make our dresses for Christmas. For five of us. We was five girls and one boy in my family. She used to make a dress, I ordered some material from Sears, and my mother used to make us some dresses every month. And Shirts for my little brother. EH - Then you passed them down. AV - Yeah. EH - We did that too. AV - I sew for my kids. Make some pants make some shorts and everything, and I still sewing and embroidering myself. EH - Mr. Ellis what did your mother do with clothing in your family when you were little? TE - She made our clothes we wore. She made our clothes. We didn't buy clothes. She always made them. She would buy the cloth to fix them. EH - Do you remember where she bought the cloth? Would she come into Bryan or College Station to buy the material? TE - She would go into Bryan. EH - Into Bryan. Probably at Edge's? TE - No, Edge's was a department store, she would purchase at dry good store. MW - ... cause I don't remember Edge's ever selling me any material. EH - OK, Edge's. MW - Edge's didn't sell no material, no as I know of. EH - All right . Where would they have bought material? MW - Guaranteed Shoe Store and K Wolens. EH - K Wolens, right. AV - K Wolens and J.C. Penny MW - And J.C. Penny's and Montgomery Wards, they had material. AV - Bealls. MW - Bealis came in later. After I married and I had children I sewed for them. I made clothes for them myself. I had my own machine. I did patterns. I would make my kids clothes. But I didn't buy. But I sewed... EH - This has all been very interesting. You know, I'm pumping you to see if you can think of anything else. We've talked about what you did when you played, and how you got around, and where you went to school, and church activities and, uh. Let me ask you one more question cause this came up in a conversation I had with a friend the other day. We were talking about card playing, playing with decks of cards, was that allowed in your home. MW - I didn't play none when I was at home with my mother and dad, but after I got married I learned a lot. I played cards a lot. Dominos. I like to play dominos now. EH - OK what about you Mr. Ellis? TE - I like to play dominos . MW - We used, I can't think of the other, but we played with cards and we played with dominos. I just love it right now. I play, I bring my crochet out here now, and I crochet. Sometimes I'll be playing dominos and crochet at the same time. EH - What about you Mrs. Valadez? AV - I never did. My daddy never let us play that. EH - You just didn't do it. It was, in the old days it was, you know there wasn't very much card playing. MW - This was after I got married. EH - Yeah, after you got married. You got liberated, didn't you ? AV - My daddy was pretty strict with us. He wouldn't let us play ball outside. I used to play baseball. Cause I liked it. EH - Are you glad you grew up when you did? AV - We had good days and good time and I'm proud. It was a lot of years now and I'm still living. I'm seventy -eight right now. MW - I'm eighty-five. EH - Are you really? AV - I'm proud of all my days that god gave me. I give thanks everyday for my life. And keeping keep my childrens. EH - I want to thank you for coming up today and sharing your memories with us . TE - Sure. MW - Ienjoyed it. And if you think of anything just real special that comes up. Oh, I wish I had told her that. Well, give the community Center a ring on the telephone. Oh, we didn't talk about a telephone. Just for a minute let's talk about that. Did you have telephones when you were little? MW - No maam. We didn't know what that was. EH - Well, When did you get your first telephone Mr. Ellis. TE - Oh, I can't remember. Forty-eight years ago. MW - I got mine in 1954. EH - 1954. MW - That's when I got my first one. 1954. I been at the same number. EH - OK. AV - I don't remember mine. EH - You just always had one. Since you've been grown. AV - Yeah. I guess it was seventy seven or eight when I started getting my telephone. EH - OK. AV - My daughter was working at the telephone company. EH - And Mrs. Hernandez? AV - 1960 she say. EH - OK, have any of you tried to use the computer? MW - I never have. AV - No. EH - You're not going into the computer. Just thought I'd ask. MW - My daughter has one. My grand daughter has one and my grand son's wife, they have one, but I never had my hands on one. EH - It's very much like a typewriter. It's just cooped up. MW - That's what my grand daughter says, "It's easy ", but I ain't never tried it. AV - I tried the typewriter. I used to write. A lot of junk. EH - Well they teach it in school today so that's... MW - These kids now days just go write on it. AV - My daddy used to write on a typewriter so I learned a little bit. EH - OK, well, I think we're going to close this up now unless you can think of anything else. And, Again, I want to thank you for coming. TE - Sure you are welcome. MW - I'm glad. AV - I'm glad too.