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14

Betty (McKinney) Neighoff

721

The first time I went to visit Betty Neighoffin her home in Hampden, the stories just pouredforth. She was so enthusiastic, and I so enthralled, that I taped our fi rst session for two hOllrs instead ofthe usual one. On my next visit, I began with questions about whac she had r ported previously, cuulthen askedfor more--and again e talkedfor two hours.

Betty's grcuuinwther, in Jw se house at 721Field Street she was born, was Sarah aiome "Lomie" Hood. Lomie Hood was the sis ter-in-/a'~1 ofAle:xine Hood, who Ii ed with

her family at 7[[ Field Screec. In addition, UYmie was the mother ofBetty's mother, Myrtle' of Mary (R od) Shay, who lived at 719 Field Screet--the east halfof the structure with 72l--and of Amy Aylsworth, who lived at 705 Field Screet.

Berry, thus, had relatives up and down the streer, culd she spent much ofher childhood, after her father died and her mother moved away, living with her Aunt Amy.

My father died when I was ery young. I really don't remember him... He was a mobile mechanic. He was in the First World W ar .. . He was gassed ... with that mustard gas .. . And that really caused his death. .. I remember going to his funeral. .. He was buried from 721 Field Street. .. [The undertaker was] Chenowith ... on Chestnut Avenue. He buried mos t verybod in Ham~n...

In those days all the dead were buried from homes... not ... from funeral parlors ... So many relatives all came home to be buried--and 721 Field Street--my father, lUlcles, allllts-­all were buried in that front living room... To me as a child, it meant meeting relatives and all that you hadn't seen for a long time.

And in those days you set up with the dead--not the children [though] ... And food was on the table--all day and all night--And there would always be five or six to sit together, usually in the kitchen, and they would go in and look ... at the dead and come out. N ow this was during the night time ... And then those five or six maybe would go and lie down and take a nap. And five or six would get up and they would sit there. You never left our dead alone...

In those da 's they hung--for older people--there was a black crepe on the door ... And then sometimes the .. 'd put a grey one on the door. And then late.r they changed that to flowers­-it was a green wreath with Howers on the door.

When my grandmother died ... she died in that living room there at 721; she was eighty-nine. Now that was Sarah Hood. And it was a very hot ... [day], and Mr. Cbenowitb, who buried all the Hoods. . . he said, "Vle1l, you know ... my place is air conditioned now and it would be nice to have Grandmother at an air-conditioned house," he said, "because they'll be so many relatives here, and it's so warm."

Now Grandmother was the fIrst one that wasn't buried in her home. Some of the family did not like it. They said ... they knew Grandmother always wanted to be buried from her home ... It was really for the best, because it was very, very hot. And from then on there was no one else buried from that house ... Grandmother died July the 10th, it'l] be 39 years tins July . ..

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Another thing--a lot of the men on the H ill they wore those ... stiff white collars, and they rubbed their necks and the would get boils, and they'd all come to my grandmother to take care of them. They didn't go to doctors ... She would bathe them in hot water, and ... [use] salve ...

I had an aunt that could take fire out . .. It's a verse in the Bible .. . A lot of the children, if they got burnt, well, then mothers would run the children to my Aunt Amy--that's Mrs. Aylsworth--and my other aunt, Bertha Brady . .. Both of them ould take fire out. And if the got you right away ... they said the verse in the Bible--your ftre would go away. You did not blister ...

Then my Aunt Bertha could take w arts off. .. 1ben there's also a verse for warts .. . And Lil Streeter--M s. Streeter--she had a granddaughter, had a big wart on the toe, and she went to the doctor's, and that doctor put e erything on, and that wart would not go away... And my Aunt Berth a--she said to her one day, "rm going to bring her to you; I want you to take it off." \Vell, I think at ftr st she used to use rul onion and then she started [to] use a string. And she--whatever she did t Lil's granddaughter, the wart disappeared ...

There is one for stopping blood. And the man--they're all dead now--but the man that told me how to do it ... his mother could stop blood. And one time over here on Brick Hill . . . in Woodberry, a m.an came to her door and he said, "My horse fell and cut his leg," and said that he's bleeding terrible .. . [He asked,] "Do you think you could stop the blood?" .. She said, "Well, I can stop the blood on a human, but I don't know whether it's going to work on a horse." But she stopped the horse's blood. . .

TIle Hill was a beautiful place to live .. . Everybody was family . We had a lad --she lived catercorner from 705 [Field Street] ... Daisy Baseman--wonderfullady! And when any of us kids got sick, we knew that Ms . Baseman was going to send us something. And it may be just a little dish ofpudding, it may be a few caramels, it might have been a slice of cake ...

And M s. Baseman had diabetes. And my cousin Jane·--she's a nurse now--that's Ms. Aylsworth's daughter ... she used to .. . go over and weigh all of Ms. Baseman's food up for her . ..

Our family ... we weren't allowed to run in people's homes, but Ms . Baseman used to call us to go to the store for her sometimes, and we always got paid off with caramels... We ne er asked for money . ..

My mother worked ... for Mount Vernon, the lower mill. She was .. . a tyer-in on the loom... I worked there later ... for fifteen years ...

In those days two and three families lived in a house... N ow, Grandmother. .. and . . . the Mc:Cauleys, and ... us, we lived Lat 721 F ield Street] ... My father, he was in the hospital a lot. Then aft r he died, we just stayed there for good--until m y mother remarried... And then my mother lef t. And I went up with my aunt [Amy]--she wanted me to come up and live with her. And my sister stayed with Ms . McCauley. But we saw my mother every week.

I remember, the mills had big, wide windows ... I heard my almt say, that a lot of mothers after they had new babies and went back to work, they would take their babies to work. Now, tnis was way back. And they made them beds in those windows and wIlen tinle came to nurse, they could stop their job, nurse the baby, and go back to work. . .

My mother, my Aunt Carrie, and my Aunt Amy worked for the mill. My Aunt Carrie was a weaver--tyer-in--and fmally my Aunt Amy and Aunt Carrie worked for the oftice ... my Almt Bertha, too. M Aunt Bertha . . . she was one of the best weavers you could ever fmd. She could go--they could go anywhere and get jobs...

Grandmother took care of all us kids--t enty-olle grandchildren ... She had ten children--well, two died young ... '!be almts and uncles all lived not too far arOlmd, and most

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all the women worked. So~ Grandmother took care of all of [the children] in 721 yard. But we had paling fences in those days .. .

My grandmother washed on a washboard out in that side yard. he had her benches and her wash tubs and her boards, and boy, she was out there five o'clock in the morning! . . And she saw that when we got old enough, we went to school, and the mothers couldnever have worked if it hadn't been for her. Hard work does not kill you ...

She just 10 ed that home. . . Grandmother got up 4:30, 5:00 every morning ... Sara Hood ... And the milkman had his breakfast with her--every morning until she died, ahnost. . · He got there ... a little after five! and Grandmother had his breakfast for him--just a friend, just the milkman, and those days, they had horse and buggy [i.e., \Vagollj ...

'There was lways meals being done. And at 721--the kitchens are huge, anyway, well they were even bigger before all the cabinets were put in. My grandmother had the biggest kitchen table that you ever laid eyes on. It was made especiall for her ... [and was] round .. · I know we could get fifteen or twenty people round that ... and we kids used to stick our chewing gum up tmderneath of it. .. ['The table] was still there when I left. But then later the modern furniture came in. 'The families weren't as big ...

Back in those days, when you had something special happen ... you had \vhat they called the Extra--you'd hear the boys hollering, "Extra! two-oent paper!" ..

Grandmother said, tins one morning--she used to feed all the tramps, hobos and all. .. TIley came up from the railroad down there back of the mill. .. She was out early. She was never afraid ... 'The men would ask her could she give them something to eat ... and she would go in and fix them a breakfast. And she would give them a hmch to take with them.

o one ever harmed her ... They'd sit out on the steps or sometlnng, until she got it ready. And she fed many and many a one from that railroad.

But thls one ... morning ... this man was standing at tlle fenoe--had a ap, just a cap on over his eyes. And he asked her, he said, "Could you give me somethlng to eat?" And she said ... "Well, au sit right here and ru get you sometlling to eat." ..

And Grandmother went and got him his package and gave llim food, and she gave him coffee ... in a milk bottle . And he tl1.anked her and tipped Ins hat, and was so nioe. Well, it wasn't too long after that an extra paper come out. She got the paper, and this man's picture was on tlle front sheet. He'd escaped from the Maryland Penitentiary. It \vas Jack Hart ...

And when Grandmother saw his picture, she said, "That's the man I fed this morning, . · . but oh, he was so nioe .. so polite. I just CtUl't believe that." But he'd come out of jail, got on the railroad, and came up...

We had no electricity . .. 'The whole Hill ha gas lights. You had no cabinets on your walls . . . You just had plain walls. And in the kitchen, especially, people kept them painted. A lot of the rooms were papered. .. e had what you call kitchen cabulets. Now you could put your dishes in the top. 'Then it had a flour sifter on one side ... And tl1en it had like a plaoe for if you wanted to keep pots and pans or food, or whatever you wanted... TIle kitchen cabinet [was] a pieoe of furniture... You push it right up against the wall... But it's all in one unit. ..

And rll tell you anotller tlllng. We had no heat. We had kitchen stoves. Grandmother at 721 had one of them great big, huge black stoves.. . 'TIleY always had a pot of coffee on that stove. And ... in the morning they'd make a big pot of soup ... about ten gallons ... vegetable soup, hominy ...

In tllOse days we kids used to take--illihe front of the stove it's like a grate ... and it had a little shelf, like on the front, and we ... would set our bread in front of that little grate on a fork. And you had to watch it or it would burn up . .. Also, that little old black stove ... Grandmother shined that up--every weekend--that was shined up with black stove polish. And it was beautiful. And . .. that heated the kitchen .

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TIley had eutheuses when I was a little girl ... 1be eutheuses~ 721 and 719, was dmvn the end ef that yard . . . and they set tegether. And yeu just used them. That was it. Celd, it didn't make any difference ... They weuld build a trellis ever the frent. ..

I can just abeut remember ... they were digging the places up to put the electricity in, and the bathreems--they took part ef the dining reem ... and we were getting ready to' ... get the train ... and I ran up en a pile ef the dirt that was there, and I fell and cut my leg. I wasn't really crying because my leg hurt. I didn't want to' leave my grandmether. Grandmether was the mest wenderful persen in the world .. . I was nO' more than five, maybe SL'i:...

Talking about the Hill ... peeple were levely. TIley were friendly--just like family ... Now 721 ... [had a] nice big yard. TIley had a path threugh there. Andeverybod en the Hill used that path to' gO' to' Chestnut Avenue. And my grandmether ... everybody en the Hill weuld step and talk to' her. Come in and sit and talk m hile ...

[TIle eutheuse people] weuld ceme down the alley--had horse and wagen... and they had these big barrels ... and they had tiris leng pele with a bucket en ... TIley weuld dip it eut ... And boy, it teek about an heur fer the air to' blew arOlmd ... but ... it was just a thing that was dene all the time ...

[can tell you a little stery, tee, about an eutheuse ... My grandmetiler teld thls. All the wemen used to' keep a kettle of hot water on their steves, because there was no het water. \Vhen yeu wanted to' have a bath, yeu had to heat the water up ...

And she said, if anything happened on tile Hill, word got arOlmd real quick. .. Thls one time ... See, a let of people had chickens in their yard. At 721 we had clllckens and ducks, for years. There was a little pend there... And Grandmother said O1le ef the chlckens had fell in the outhouse ... And when the man who O'wned tile place got it eut ... he had left this stick lay in the outheuse--underneath, yeu knew.

Well, this fancily, they had a little girl. .. And she ... fell down in the eutheuse. And Grandmether said the stick is what saved her life ... She c-aught en to' it, and screaming, and the mother ... ran and seen where she was, and she screamed and hellered, and one ef the men get her eut.

\-Vell, Grandmether said, word ceme arOlmd, Everybedy bring yeur kettles e f het water. And they put a tub up in tile yard. And all the wemen ran with their het teakettles ef water and .. . bathed her and waslled her and cleaned her up. That happened right all Bay Street. ..

And then anether thing en the Hill: Yeu knew, we didn't have dectors like tl"leY de teday, that yeu gO' to'. We had a doctor that came· areund. And he was Dr. Ceughlin ... up en 37th treet, right acress frem tile Baptist church ...

Dr. eughhlin weuld come--two dellars ... a visit. .. We had sO' many dectors--Dr. Davies, Dr. Deidenheever Dr. Kelley. Dr. Ceughlin was the ene that came areund to' all ef us. He delivered a let ef babies at 721 . .. my sister and myself, my Aun t Amy's three babies ... my Aunt Carrie's five--all at 721. ..

'Mrs. McCauley's .. . sen's eldest boy was born there, up in the back bedreem at 721. He weighed three peunds ... Dr. Ceughlin came dewn--I was sLxteen years eld ... He said to' me ... "I'll be back later to' see the baby ." Well, he said later, he expected to' come back and fmd t1"1e bab, dead. But he teld t1"1em, he said, "Wrap l:rim up in a blanket and put him underneath a bed light." .. He's a SL'i: feot~ tall fellow ... new...

TOOre was a lady was a midwife named--if I'm net mistaken, her name was Knapp . .. My ene aunt, she had eight chlldren, and I think she delivered practically her whele eight children... Because, I can remember, ene efher chlldren, I was just a little kid, and when I went in Ms. Knapp had just delivered t1"1e baby. And she was a big midwife in Hampden...

My aunt, her name was Pearl Heed... She was married to' ene ef my granchnetl-1er's sens, Earl. .. They were separated for a long time after that, but ... they are buried tegether.

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· . Ms. Knapp ... was a short woman, and sort of stout. And, of course, those days the women wore the dresses like--well they came all the way down to their ankles ...

Allllt Carrie had the front bedroom--there was three bedrooms ... in [721 Field Street] . · . with ... three [beds]. Her husband had one, the boys had anothei one, and the girl had another one. My mother had one bedroom, because my father \vasn't home.. . There was my mother and my sister and I. And my Allllt Amy and her husband had a bed and she had t\VO cribs for her babies, because it wasn't too long after that, she moved to 705 [Field Street].

Granchnother had a da bed in the dining room. We had a Davenport. .. And when you had company ... and you ... never knew when you were going to have company, they slept in there. And ... we didn't know what sex was. We never saw anything. "Ve never heard anything. The men didn't use dirty words ... No women smoked--that was a sin! And the women didn't even have their hair cut. ~le women wore lon g bair, and tied up in knots.

I think my mother was one of the fIrst women to get ller hair cut. TIlat was awful! And the women wore a little dust box ... It was whi te and it was rolllld and tlley had, like, little ruffles on them, And that \vas to keep dust and all when they were cleaning from getting in their hair. And my motller used to wear one. . .

I was twelve years old, and my Allllt Amy ... wanted me to come Witll her, and she had a daughter and son, Jane and Pat. And I went up there and lived with her... But we were always down [at] 721 . .. Every Saturday night we'd take lllllclnneat and cheeses ... and we'd get around that big old table ... and talk--and, m aybe [until] 1 o'clock in tile morning. We kids always went to Sunday School. .. We went to Mount Vernon [Methodist church]. And then later... to nited Brethren ...

Do you remem ber those swings . . . lbey were platfonn botto:r:n, and two sides ... and a little top on them? .. Most everybody had one of tllem. And I can just remember all of us getting in tilere swinging .. . We'd say, "Grandmother ... "Ve want some bread and jelly." . · And I've seen ller take a whole loaf of bread, and butter it and jelly--we didn't ask for cookies and all. In those days we didn't get cookies and candy and all like tlle kids do today. · . And she would hand it out to all of us kids ...

Grandmother made her bread twice a week until store-bought sliced bread came out... Now Ms. Leitner, that's Margaret Phoebus's grandmother, she made bread ... for years after that. ..

TIleY had a little store on Keswick Road called Bern StOlle'S Confectionery store--and they would order five gallon [of ice cream]. And on Fourth of July monling [in] that kitchen cupboard they'd always have room for it ... a big tall barrel ... and then they had the ice CTeam in the middle. And we had fIve gallon ice cream every F Ourtil of July.

e had our own fireworks. In t110se days kids could buy fireworks. And Attie Shreve's, for one, on Keswick Road, sold tllem... spit-devils, torpedoes, sparklers ... TIle spit-de il .. . was a little round thing ... and you could take it and pull it across the concn~te . · . and it would make sparks, but then we used to put it under a heel and spin arolllld on it. .. TIley could burn you... We had good times, tile FOurtll of July...

One big day in the whole Hampden area was Memorial Day... TIley all went to Saint M ary's [churchyard]. And that's one day my grandmot~ always went to the cemetery. And you put flowers on all the graves. She has a full lot up t11ere wit11 a lot of Hoods in it. And my mother and father's buried up t11ere... When you got into the cemetery you met everybody you knew in Hampden. And they really had a beautiful ceremony ... They had a wooden platform put up. TIley had speakers. They had music... TileY had the veterans ...

Easter. We would all get row outfits, and we always went to church. And then after that, why, we would take walks . .. (to] the Art M useum... And tilen on Easter Monday we

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went out in Druid Hill Park. We would take our hmch and take our hardboiled eggs and Easter baskets, and we would roll eggs .. . They were dyed eggs, hardboiled eggs ...

It was a hill... And you would take your egg and roll it, and then r d take mine and roll it. If I bmnped your egg, and it had a crack in it, and I put that cTack in your egg I got the egg...We made a whole day out of it.

And another thing at Easter--they would have what you called Pickin' Eggs. Now, you're supposed to use hard-boiled eggs. But a lot of the boys ... would get one with a real sharp point. And r d hold my egg like this--give you room enough--and you'd take your egg and bump them. And whoever got the crack lost the egg . ..

Some of the boys sometiules ':>'lould get a--I don't know \ hether it was a goose egg, or some kind of egg that's got a much harder shell ... a little before Easter. And they'd come around, and you'd hear them out in that alley, and they'd be hollering

Last hold up Who's got the ginnigee Who wants to picka me?

And whoever had an egg ready they'd run out . . .

Christmastime ... everybody had trees ... and the rooms were cold. TIley ,"'ere ice cold ... Grandmother said, when her children were little ... before she moved in 1917 into 721 [Field Street] ... they would put their Christmas tree up and sometimes leave it up till April. . . Didn't have lights on the trees. We had all balls ... and we'd make ... paper chains and cranberries... '"l11i!y were pretty ...

Every ourth of July most of the churches in Hampden would parade. You would dress up ... and each church had their ov.m grove. Some had a pavilion on it; some didn't. Now, Mt. Vernon hurch had a big pavilion out there . .. TIle United Brethren O mI'ch, they were right acros s from the swimming pool ..

My Sw day School tea 'her . . . she made us a red-white-and-blue outfit ... big badges, and ... we'd carry flags .. . E ery church mostly had a band--and you can't even find one oday ... especially the Salvation Anny--t1ley used to be on Chestnut Avenue. And

everybody would march out. And they'd give prizes ... and then they treated you to ice cream and cake...

That was M t. Vernon [ hurch] , Grace, Baptist, United Brethren, Hampden ... Kings Memorial--that came over from Remington--and the alvation Anny ... Used to go out on Keswick Road if you weren't in the parade, and you would sit on the steps ~Uld watch all the churches...

I t11ink my aunts and all went to work in the mill when they were eleven, twelve thirteen years old ... I remember tllem saying the mill had a store ... and she bought all her groceries there. And ... she said my Allllt Amy, and I think it was my mother, when they got paid, they got empty envelopes, because they took the mone for the groceries out of their pay, so that way tJleir bill was always paid. And I renlember my Aunt Amy telling me, she s id, 'Td get empty envelope[s] ; then Mama would give me a nickel or dime. if she could, for working a week--sLxty hours I think it was. But that was the store. You had to buy there ...

Valentine's Day, we kids--'ust the kids--on the Hill ... would buy these little I think, two for a penny ... valentines from Attie Shreve's ... We'd buy the little hearts and the cupids ... and every year we'd send them to all the kids we played with on the Hill. You'd put them 1lllder tlle door, rap, and run ...

Ms. Shreve, she had more of a little confectionery store. She sold ice cream, but sile also sold sliced lunch meats and some canned goods. Ms. ~ ay had a regular grocery store .. ·

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My Amt Amy and my Amt Carrje got their groceries from her. Every--every day you went to the store and got fresh bread and all, and tlll:!n at the end of the week, on Saturda r she would total it up and you'd pay what you owed.

And then my cousin .. . Ms. McCauley's son M ilton, he used to go aromd there all tlll:! time and help Ms. Way. And you didn't get paid--you just went in there and he--Ms. Way thought of him as a son, because her son had died when he was yomg, and then she had three daughters.. .I used to go in Ms. Shreve's in the summer and shave snowballs. Now that was with that hand shaver... And I would stay there £ r hours .. . I loved to help in tIll:! store . . .

When anybody was going to die, real close, to my grandmother ... something would happen....So, my Am t Amy Aylsworth .. . had a five-month old son" Kenneth. And he was taken sick, and Dr. Coughlin came to the house... And Grandmother said, "He was a beautiful, healthy baby one week, and the next weekend he \vas skin and bones." \Vell, in those days they didn't take you to the hospital and [mel out Just what was wrong with you ...

TIus night .. . Grandmother was holding Kenneth ... and he was e ry, very ill. .. My father was there, and my father didn't believe in half these things you tell him--about little tlOOgs happening. Grandmother told us this story, and my Aunt Amy, too.

A rap came at 721--three knocks. And my father went to the door. 'Ibere was nobody there... And he said .. . "Grandmother, there's nobody there." And she said, "No, Jim, the baby's dying." And he didn't believe it. .. And three more knocks came at the door. And he went, and there was nobody there. And she said, "Jim, don't go to the door no more, the baby's dying." And the baby died in her arms.

1ben Granchnother said when her ousin, Margaret Ohlendorf, who I calle·d Babbie ... Grandmother said one morning in 721 ... [she] got up early and .. when she went to tum from the stove--the doorway here, that went into the hallway--Babbie was standing there ... and Grandmother saw ber ... She looked [again], and she was gone...

So, she said, around noon ... she saw W ill race corning in the yard ... from Morall Park .. . and told Grandmother that Babbie had died that morning ... No one \vas ever banned in the house ... But my grandmother would get these, as we called them in those days, tokens ...

1ben later Dr. Coughlin told my Aunt Amy ... "He had spinal meningitis ... Thank God the baby died... It was a blessing." He's buried up in St. Mary's [cemetery]. They're all buried at St. Mary 's, half of them...

I was about ten years old ... and the Ku Klux Klan had a carnival ... It was only one time. It was up in the Field... The had all these booths, you know, where you put a nickel on a number and win, and, boy you really got the good gifts in those days ... My Amt Carrie went up there, and she \-von baskets of fruit ... ten pomds of sugar, and flour... 1bey went, like, from Monday to Saturday--no Smday.

And tlle last night ... I remember going up there at dark, and the cross~ they burned a cross, and it was sort of like catercorner from 721 ... And all tlle rnen--I guess women too-­they were all aromd in a circle with their whlte robes on, and the different things on their hoods. And I stood with them.

1bey didn' --there was a couple of us kids. I don't know who the other kids were, but I know I was there .. and they took in new members ... And I know I thought it was wonderful . And I thought--I thlnk I asked someone when you could jo in. And they said you've got to be eighteen.

But it was no dis turbance--no police ... because tileY didn't do anytlling really wrong .. . Nobody ever said why, or who they were. I don't know whether they knew or not. ..

Now, after the Ku K lux Klan moved out .. . tlle Pentecostal religion ... the Holy Rollers, they used to pitch a tent up there--huge tent. .. Every night they had a service. And Slll1day they had afternoon service, and we kids, we used to go up there, and boy, we'd sing their songs and we'd watch and listen to them preach... 1be preacher they had was called

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Pritchard... I'm sure they were there· two Slllnmers, and then they went up on 34th Street. From 34th they came up here--It's a little red church . .. [on] Conduit [Street] .. .

And Ms. Ridgely ... on Bay Street, she was a member ... In the winter .. . she would take us ... to [the preacher's] church. And that's the ftrst p lace I ever saw them baptize people. In my church, they christen you... And they really could get happy. But we used to go--Lilly Lilly Ridgely. It was her mother .. . And she was very superstitious ... That was Sadie. She was a nice person. But she was big in the Pentecostal church.. .

[The Holy Rollers] had sawdust. . . We had benches in those days ... And we'd all set there, you know. And it was hot, and they had the tent rolled up. If it rained, the. 'd put the tent down. And oh, they'd get up there and shout and thro\v their anns up and fall in tIle grOlllld. We kids just stood and watched them. It was--to us it was fun, I guess. But they would scream and holler and shou t. Yeah, they got real happy ... Tears \vould come down their face ...

1be whole Hill had [boardwalks]. Everybody had one from their back steps to the gate, and from their front porch ... to the front gate ... It was, like, two long boards ... and then they took boards, and they put a board here, leave a little space, and a board ... And every now and then they'd have to take those side--those top boards off and put new ones down. And that's when us kids would be there to find--to see if any money [was] under there ...

In those days ... a lot of women bought from Henry Checket. He was down on Gay Street. And he would come around to the house in his car, and you could say, "Mr. Che 'ket, I need ... a new chair." And he'd bring it out to you, or you could go to his store ...

They were like famil . You'd see them e ery week. And you'd pay fifty cen'ts or a dollar. And you could get anything you want. .. He was a Jewish man. Very nice man. .. When he came in, he set down and had coffee... They got to know you. They knew the whole family. And he was a lovely man...

This one Easter I wanted a coat, and he was there, and I said something about a ('-oat, and he said, "What kind you want?" And I told him, descTibed what I had in mind--''!'ll have it for you next week." And he brought it out. .. Those days, you could tell them what you want, and .. . they'd get you just perfect. .. And you paid them a dollar a week. ..

Your insurance men. I know we had Metropolitan ... They were just like family. They corne every week. You did not send your insurance in .. .

vVe had a banana man that cam~ around. He was a little Italian. And I can remember-­horse and wagon--always stopped in front of my Aunt Amy's at 705 [Field Street]... The small b-ananas were three dozen for thirty-five ... I don't know whether it was twenty-tive or thirty-ftve. And the large bananas were two dozen for twenty-tive or thirty-five ... And he was there every Saturday around noon.

one of us had ... electric refrigerators. We had the ice boxes. And you got ice, I think, every other day. And when that old ice truck ... pulled up--with a horse--we kids-­they'd ha e a little step on the back .. . vVe kids would jUlllp up there and look for little pieces of ice... We never washed it. Nobody got sick. ..

And I can remember seeing the milk bottles from Western Maryland Dairy. When they delivered, they'd set tilem out on tile back steps. And sometimes by the time you got it in, it. .. . was frozen so that--it was paper caps on it, and the paper cap and tIle ice would be up about this high, and your cap would be setting up on top--and then we'd get that and cut that off and eat that. That was just like ice cream...

Later on .. . Mr. Bernstein, that used to be on 36th treet, he used to come house to house. And lle sold washing macrunes--all household appliances ...

Now Ms. B seman, Daisy Baseman ... on Lexington Street, that was called Bernheimer's... Her daughter V irginia, she would send her dO\vn there ... And sometimes Dot M cCauley would go with Iler and Lilly Ridgely. And they'd buy--bring it hOllle on streetcars.. . You bought so much, and you got free tickets to Carlins Amuselllent Park. .. And tilen we kids would all go out [to] Carlins Park ... and get on rides and all like ti1at. ..

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And then my Amt Pearl ... [her] Inna ... she was the oldest girl and she had to watch kids ... Where the Boy Scouts are--that was a playgromd... She'd take three or four of her mother's kids ... It'd be my sister and I, and maybe Dot [McCauley]... We'd go down there and stay all day . . . TI1eY had a big sandpile ... 'We'd play ball. And the tea hers got so down there--they had two teachers--they kne\v you ... And if you did something, "Well, we'll let your mother know about that!" . . That was a lovely playground . . .

The playground was, like, in the front and ,then you could walk over--it was like woods. And we had a path ... and you came out on Falls oad.. . And there was an icehouse down there. And we used to go there and ask for pieces of ice... And you weren't afraid in those days ... It was about three or four of us, we went dO\l.in there and got ice ... down there by the [street]car museum ... We rode there in a wagon ... I was in the front holding the steering thing on the wagon.

We had . .. Union Hardware [roller] skates . .. We used to skate from ... Keswick Road . . . up to 36th Street and then skate back. We would jump curbs--you never had to look for cars . Wasn't that man cars there ...

Marguerite Phoebus .. . her mother ... had five kids . And Marguerite had to mind Leonard, the youngest one, after we came home from school. And I used to think that was great, because I didn't have no children I had to watch... 'We'd take him aromd to Keswick Road in the 3000 block, and we'd put him up against the ,vall, and we would skate... She's about the only one I know left on the Hill. ..

Richard Me~ds . . . tin s was his brother--and he was retarded... I know we used to go to the fence [at 726 Pacific S treet]. And the swing wasn't too far awa and he'd be setting on that [swing] floor .. . I guess he couldn't set in the seat. .. And he'd take the seat, and it would make him swing.

And we kids would go to the fence--we never went in the ards and all, unless we \vere invited in--but we would holler at him and wave at him, and I don't think he could talk. I tilink he made noises ... We dichl't know why he was in that swing ... because t.~y never told you. Never heard about a retarded clnld. Didn't know what they were. We knew something was wrong. But we clichl't know w hat. . .

[Mr.] Frock ... used to have a beautiful yard. He had no children ... And the mill company used to give a prize ... every ear for the prettiest yard, and Mr. Frock always got it. .. When I first went to work, I had to go down that hill.4 And it was muddy; it was slippery... And then later they put those steps in ... We were going to buy that house from them.. .

On that corner ... Ernest Hood ... bought that house 720 Bay Street] ... And then he also owned ... the next house across tile alley [726 Bay], and then he took the big one that had the big yard [728 Bay] . .. He bought tilose t\ 0 houses, but he didn't live in them...

Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick [on Pacific Street] were--Granchnother's son Robert \vas married to their daughter Veronica... Robert Ray Hood [was his name].

The Fitzpatricks were Catholic... Uncle ay, he was divorced. And back in those days that was a terrible sin for a Catholic person to want to marry a divorced man... So, the story I heard was, my Amt Abby ... lived up in Rhode Island. So, Uncle Ray and Veronica Fitzpatrick ... sorta like ... ran away ... And . .. when they got to Amt Abby's, they

4 The hill from the end of Bay Str t down to Chestnut Avenue, where today there are nights of concrete steps. The upper part lies between 726-28 on the north and 735-37 on he s uth.

2 3

couldn' t get ... the marriage license ... So, Aunt Abby sat up all night with them... She wouldn't let anybody go to bed .. . 1be next cla they went and got married.

Later ... he bought the Fitzpatricks their home. He was an accountant. He ",'as reaUy a Slllilrt man.. . So, my grandmother told tiris, she said, "One day when we were walking around ... Mrs. Fitzpatrick ... said, 'I'll tell you tlris, Mrs. Hood ... Ray is one lovely son-m-law.'" Ron and Ray, they were the most wonderfulouple.

If you got an eighth-grade education, you were lucky ... Aunt Carrie started as a tyer-in in tlle weaving room, same as my motlrer. My Aunt Bertlla was a good weaver. Well, my Aunt Amy ... went right in to the office ... She was comptometer operator ... And she was one of the best there was, and she was left-handed. .. She worked on payroll. Now, AlUlt Carrie worked on payroll, too ... all, if only you could have talked to my Aunt Amy ... You're just a little too late!

[Alllt Abb ] was a big woman ... [and she] rubbed snuff. . . In fact she gave us kids a quarter for going to the store and I ll1ean tl1at was a lot of money. And sIre used Honest snuff . .. She llad her little dabber, I called it. It was like a piece of stick. . . She'd dip it in tlre snuff and put it in her moutll and she'd chew on it. .. She was the only woman I ever seen [do that]. .. And sOO'd have her little spittoon. And that \vas right beside her. And she'd be sitting there making these quilts, and she'd dab her little snuff in her mouth. And then sIre used her spittoon ... And we used to laugh, because nobody else in the family did that. I don't kno\v how that started.. .

'Ibis was my granclmofuer's sister--Abicail. Her las t na:rne was Keller ... 11lat was her marriage nan1e. And, sOO's tlle one I told you, OOr husband died when he was killed in one of the wars--way back. And she got a little pension . . . She worked up in Rhode Island in a wool mill... She's the one made the quilts. TIlat's all she did. Just sit and make quilts all day long, and she gave Grandmother some ...

We kids took them wilen they got a lit Ie beat up, and we'd take them dO~'n in the field. Well, time you got through with SUIl1IIler, all too kids laying on a quilt, they were gone. And if I'd had good sense, I would have kept one of them. Because she ... [would] make a square and she'd make a little basket and put flowers in it--a1l by hand, with teeney stitches ...

And I can remember, my sister and I were ill bed--we both llad the measles--and our baskets--my mother had our baskets there. And my Aunt Abby, I can see her sitting in tilat little room at 721, upstairs, by the window, with her little dabber in ller mouth--I call it--and ller quilts. And she'd just sit there and work on those quilts ...

When she came for a visit, like in the slunmer, she'd stay about a month, and she always sent tlris big trunk. he boarded with a man and woman in Rhode Island ... And if they had clothes that nobody clain1ed ... s}re'd say, "Yeah, put 'em in the trunk." .. When tl1at trunk reached 721, we kids couldn't wait to see what was in it. ..

She \vas buried from 721. .. 1be man and woman sIre boarded with--the man died .. I told you Ernest Hood bought tllat house across from 72l? Well, that ... was one of the few houses tllat had a nice basement. And he llad that fixed up, and Aunt Abby and tlris lady ... [came and] lived there .. . I was no more tl1ftIl m aybe fifteen years old.

\tVhen the Ridgelys lived there, Lilly llad tllat as a playroom. And, m God, we kids thought that was wonderful ... And the next door [726 Bay], I tlrink, had a basement, because my Aunt Pearl lived tlrere too, one time, and we used to pIa in them basements ...

Aunt Abby and tlris lady . . . lived in that front basement. They used the bathroom upstairs ... And they lived there until Aunt bby died, and then the lady died.

Aunt Carrie's husband, Uncle Ge.orge, he worked for Standard Oil, and he was one of the first--few men tl1at had a car ... And he'd get in that car, and 011, \'I/e kids would llave loved to have a ride, but we never got in it. .. He was ; .. to ll1e ... wealthy...

During the Depression ... well, the mills, they were doing bad; they closed dmVl1. And people, if they could get one day's work--I seen my uncle go to work for half a day--glad to

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get it. .. My Ailllt Carrie's family and my Aunt Amy's family. and my mother~ the" were Iu ky in those days ... they had quite a bit of insurance. lOOy didn't have to ask for any help. Now, people on the H ill, a lot of them got Welfare ... [Our families] had enough money--well the men made a day work here, a day work there...

1 was born February L th, 1917 ... in 721 F ield Street. .. 1 have one sister, Eunice... We had no brothers...

Our playmates (were] Marguerite Marston .. . Lilly Ridgely Virginia Baseman, Goldie Marston, Dorothy Marston, Helen Marston, Dorothy Keller, and then ... Tom Keller and Earl Marston ... and my cousin Dorothy (McCauley] and my Aunt Pearl's [H ood] children; there was De.lphie, which we called Bill, and Enna, Sarah ... [but] the boys, they sorta played together ...

Some of the kids from dO\vn the end would come up, but mostly it was 721 and Bay ... We played between Field and Ba '" right in that alley ... jump-rope ... baseball, only we had a big ball ... jacks ... Wolf, Home Sheep Run...

Vie went to 55 School ... and went to the eighth grade ... We had a little sewing class by Miss Hattie ... When you got in the eighth grade, you got cooking, but you had to come over to [school] 56 to take cooking class ... Vie came to school from 9 to 12 and ... from 1 o'clock to 3. If it was snowing or raining, at five minutes of 12 they used to ring two bells, and you stayed till 1 o'clock. .. And then when you went home, you didn't have to come back. And 1 loved that, because I went to mo ie s! . .

1 went to night school--at City College. And in those days ... 1 had to get the number 10, it was, or 25 in those days, that came down Chestnut Avenue ... at night time ...

\Ve had "low" grades. "Vhen we started in school--see, 1 was SL'i:. years old in February, but my mother didn't start me to school till the following September. She didn't want me to go to school in the wintertime. Well, you could do that then. So, she actually kept me out of s h 01 for SL'\. months... You went from September to February--was a half sesi011--and from February to June- was the second session... And we used to have passing time, as they called it in February ... If ou failed, you stayed back. ..

1 had some lovely teachers--all old... Ms. Milburn ... [in] the 6th grade ... and Emma Thomas in the 7th, and Maggie Fitzgerald in the 8th. Ms. Milburn ... you learned how to write in her class... And 1 can remember, if you were writing and she came along and she grabbed your pencil, if it didn't come right out of your hand, if you were holding it tight, boy, you heard from her ... Kate Milburn...

We had 110 sassing of tea hers ... When a tea her talked to you, it was, "Yes Ma'am." . . 1bey put you in the coat room [for discipline] . .. Sometimes they stood you in the corner . . . But 1 never knowed of anyone ever getting their fingers smacked, or anything like that--never . . . [1] never got in trouble. I was good...

Those da 's, 1 was real good in algebra ... But if a teacher was out sick. .. Tins onI happened in high eighth, and Maggie Fitzgerald was our teacher. TileY would sent to M iss Maggie, and they'd say o- and-So teacher is out; let one of your girls go down and stay with the class ... And 1 was picked a lot. .. 1 just loved that. ..

You know, Hampden itselfback--way back when we were kids--Black people were afraid to come through. I don't know of any violence ... But on the Hill 1 don't think 1 hardly ever saw one...

We used to have what we called rag men... Parents and all, when you got through with a shirt, or something, they would pu t it in a bag .. . And these people would come--that was newspapers--magazines,we didn't have any magazines in those days--ancl they would weigh them up. And they gave you so much for the weight of the rags.

Well, you know we used to ha e a rag factory right down here where Pepsicola is . .. and used to see trucks going dov.'l1 here ... and they had them great big bales of rags... But

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it caught on ftre one night--boy, we had sparks blowing over here and everything . .. TIleY cleaned it all off and Pepsicola took over ...

TIle Arabs ... they come around, they bought rags they bought papers ... I didn't know them, no. I don't think we were allowed to t.l.k to them ... Our Italian banana man. . . We went out and got the bananas ... but ... \ve just got them, paid for them, and that was it. But our milkman, you got to know like the family. TIle iceman, he came in the house. . .

Years ago ... I can just remember ... I think he was an Italian man, that used to bring a little wagon around, and be sold . .. water i ce ... You'd go out to his truck, and you'd have an ice-cream cone, and you'd get a little dip of ... water ice... [He had a] horse-drawn [wagon].

'The ice man was a horse-drawn, so was the banana man ... and the milkman... 011, the coal. .. Everybody used coal, and they had them big bags made out of canvas with straps on them, and they 'd take it to tlle truck, and they'd fill them up and bring them in to the heds . . . I don' t think anyone had a fireplace ... 1bey had d o sed them all up...

And 705, in the living room . .. a man on Keswick Road, Emerson Curtis, l1e built our ftreplace... It had been an old fireplace dosed up. And Emerson Curtis opelled it up, and it's a red brick ftreplace with tile-I think they call it the basket front. And it has a white mantle... And every Christmas my aunt would have Wagner Floris ts on 36th Street make a holly design for that mantlepiece... It was beautiful...

The rag men, as we called them. I don't think they were black. .. I think they were all white...

Old "Hen" Sater, wore all the badge s ... He was an old ITh:'U1..• He was sort of retarded... He used to go to the Police Department on 34th treel. .. He would go out and get them coffee, or get them a newspaper . . . Well, they gave him a coat--one of their coats. And he had this old police co-at on with all this gold braid, and he wore all kinds of medals all over him, and he come up [to 55 School, and be'd holler at the kids, and all, and some of the kids really gave him a time, teasing him ... but some of the girls, they'd tease him, and he'd try to grab tl1em. . .

But when l1e died, he was at Cl1enowith's . . . where Seitz took over ... The police department laid him out; they put him away--they buried him. And all [the] school kids from 55 lined up for blocks, and \ve all went in and wenl around the cas~t and left. ..

They always said up on the cowfie1d, up in that corner where Tilden Drive is, they always said that was an Indian graveyard ... And they did say that wl1en tl1ey buill ilelen Drive, that row of houses, they did fmd some arrowheads and a few little things--beads, and things like that, but no bodies . ..

[The Depression] was rough on my aunts and everybody on the Hill. . . A lot of them on the Hill got help from the Welfare. And a lot of them lived well from the Welfare·. They got great big bags of flour. because I sa'\,; it. .. TIleY gave them clothes--nice coats and nice dresses. They did well.

My Au:rlt C arrie McCauley and my unt Amy and my mother, they didn't ask ever for any help ... My Aunt Amy used blue coal, which was very good coal. My Aunt Carrie had to go to soft coal, because she had that furnace in the kit hen tllen ... TIley took and sold a lot of their insurance policies... when they needed a ton of coal. .. Just when we needed something, we got it--like .. . a pair of shoes.. . We always had plenty of food on the table.

My Aunt Carrie .. . had this furnace in the kitchen; sl1e had beautiful white hair, and she had to burn soft coal, and soft coal was dirty, really dirty . And Aunt Carrie would have to burn that because ber furnace took a lot of coal. And every day, towards the end of the day . . . she'd have to get in that top of the stove and brush them nues ... but when she got done, her hair--oh, she was black. .. Sl1e used to go out on the back steps of 721, and sl1e used to sit there and cry . . .

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TIley got nice things from the \\Telfare ... a lot of families right on the Hill ... M. Allllt Pearl, for one ... of course, she had all them kids . .. Well, we just did without lllltil we really needed something ...

All tl1e people that were buying homes ... paid interest and expense; they didn't put nothing on their house. They just paid enough that kept them from losing their house ... I don't remember anybody e er losing their hous . ..

TI1en, as I say, when the mills would call ali: no matter what you were doing, they'd say, Got a half day's w ork, or a day's wor -- ou went, and you worked. And my uncle [Aylsworth] could just get a day here and a day there ... and my A1ll1t Amy and Allllt Carrie, see, none of them were working . .. Later, thing started to pick up, and that's when I went to work. ..

My Aunt Amy and AlUlt Carrie used to go to M s. Way's ... and they would get my Allllt Pearl a basket. .. She got a basket every week ... to keep the kids from going hllllgry ..

The Church of the Guardian gel--I don't know how much Mr. Kromer gave to the Hill, but Mr. Kromer was a wonderful man. .. He ould go to Ms. Way's , because Ms. Way--they belonged to that church, and ... every ~ eek he would ha e M s. Way make up a many baskets, and he would gi e them out 10 people ... in his church, but whether he gave any on the Hil1--because we had people on the Hill who went to his church--[I don't know] .. .

I was out of school ... by about fifteen but I couldn't get a job nowhere . . . So, I went down [to] the mill and put in an appli ation ... TIleY had men creeling on these beamers, as IlleY c-alled them, but they wanted to put women in, be use they'd only pay us a quarter an hour. So [Aunt Carrie] 8 id, HA man down there, Billy Bauglunan, is hiring girls for--to do the creeling." W 11, boy, I w s read in fifteen minutes . . . See, in those days you didn't have to be interviewed. He just looked at Oli.••

I went down, and he said, "Start tomorrow morning." .. So Erma Everest,5 that was my Uncle Earl's oldest daughter, she went to work in the morning; I went to work in the afternoon, and the lllred two other girls. And we would have to creel those bean1ers ... A man run them--no women. .. TIley would make the warp for the weaving room. . .

Different girls would lea e, and more would come in. But old me, I stayed ... The m oved us from that--we called it the rat hole. It was way down in the basement. ... Let me tell you, the mills bad rats, but I never saw any, but I was scared...

11Jen things started to get bad again. .. and they asked me if I wanted to go to Meadow Mill ... and l s i Yeab, I would take a job in Meadow Mill on a reel, and that was making skeins, with seine twine ...

I worked over there nighttime, and AImt Carrie and A1ll1t Amy would ,valk from F ield Street up here every night and meet me and walk me home--didn't have any cars, and the old "tripper" didn't run after 12 a ' lock. .. It was a little streetcar ... It stayed there on IlJe side of Heiss's, and you could get on it and it would bring ou down to ... a coal company there-­but now it's a saloon dO\:vn there ...

I stayed only on night work a while, and things closed down... When the Depression was sort of easing up ... you would work a while and get laid off.. .

When I was over Meadow Mill then, it was a girl over there, she got in a fight Witll another woman, and they fired her. And they gave me the clerk job. And then I was Mr. Ray's clerk over there ... And then when I went down [to] Mt. Vernon, I was Mr. Ray's clerk, and then I was Roy Gobbel's clerk, and that's until I left. I worked fifteen years in the mill ... [lllltil] 1948 . . .

\\Then I started, I made twenty-fi e cen ts an hour ... We worked ten hours a day . . . and t1Jen Roosevelt made the NRA, which was eight hours a day and forty hours a week, and we were in seventh heaven, and . .. they raised our pay, and I tlllnk I got around fourteen dollars ... a week. ..

j i. e. Erma Hood.

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The bosses were all nice ... Let me tell you, there were some nice men and women in that mill...

Only the one that cleaned the bathrooms [was black], and she was wonderful--Mamie-­Mamie and Violet. .. She knew her place ... In those days--which is very wrong--they didn't consider Blacks equal to the whites . .. But Violet was a lovely lady; so \vas Mamie. ..

And I remember Aunt Carrie telling me--Carrie McCauley--that Violet one time invited a couple of them from the oUice to her house at Christmas time. And they went. . . Now, remember, this was when you didn't have Blacks like you do today ... She had the nicest, cleanest house ... She had all the white women up at the end of the table, and her and her husband down at the other end... They said, "Come on, Violet you and your husband, you're not going to sit dovvTI there; you come up here." .. TIllit's how it used to be.

And t.ren Violet left, and Mamie Davis came in, and Mamie was a lovely Black woman. · . A lot of people almost felt like they were relatives--they were so nice--and they--they knew their place ...

Mamie came to my Aun Amy's at 705 i ld Street] after my Aunt Amy retired ... Aunt Amy said she went to the door to let Mamie in, and Mamie grabbed her and she hugged her and she kissed her on the cheek. And my aunt said all she could think about was, What's the neighbors thinking ... In those days I never saw any Black people go in any houses ... Mamie was a big fat woman.

[Working on] seine twine twisters . . . all that lint and everything would go under there. Well sometimes, it could e en be a spool they were running off, and a spark would ny from it · .. and, boy, if that spark hit that lint, I seen a whole ... frame go up in names... The women got out of the way, and I have seen the men run, get the ftre extinguishers, come over, put the whole thing out. .. Of course, then it all had to be cleaned up...

In the beaming room, the beamer is a big, old machine in the front. . . We cree led the back. . . They always told you ... If you ever go to work 011 that ... stop it and do your tying in and fix your beam. Don't do it when it's nnming. Well, they had two men I know of killed down there ... And right before I went to work, this young fellow went to piece an end in. Well they think they're quick. And he went to tie the end in, and when he did, he got his fmgers caught--and the thing just takes au right on.in, turns you over and breaks your neck. And he was killed--young boy.

Well when I first went to work in the beaming room~ that beamer that he was killed on, they had it setting down in the rat hole, as they called it, in the back, and they had his cap--was still hanging up on it. And I'm fifteen ... The first thing the men, when they got to talk to you · .. there was only us four girls when we were in there--was all men . .. they told us, "See that beamer over there ... lbat's the one so-and-so got killed on. 1b.at's his hat " I was scared to death. And they'd tease you...

But anybody got hurt like that, it was their own clem fault. Because they were told to stop machinery--Work on your machinery; then run it. And they would take a chance ffi1, like, trying to tie ends or something, and all you had to do--if you had a ring or anything--if you get caughLin that, you were gone.. .

So, when we moved from the rat hole up to the next floor, we had a lot of yarn down there, and ... my boss down there was named Billy Baughman. And every now and then he'd say to me, "Betty. go downstairs--that was in the basement, rat hole--alld ... bring up tlve or six spools ...

And nobody dO\\ru there now! .. And that old beamer still setting there with that hat on! And I was afraid of rats... And I'd go down making all this noise ... And rd stamp my feet--and I knew just where everything was. And I'd run to the bin and get these couple spools, and I'd hallow out of there! ..

I was clerk. .. Next door was the tirst-aid room. And when they needed First Aid, I would call over to the offtce and ask for Elsie Ensor. She was the First Aid woman. [They]

2 8

didn't have no nurse then ... I was setting there at the desk this one day and Nellie Cooper . . . come in fUld said, "Betty, I cut my finger off'... and I called Elsie Ensor, ... "Get over here right away. Nellie Cooper's cut her finger off." And that would make her hurry--because she was a heavy-set woman. But she had to come across the street. and all.

So, anyv.:-ay, they took her to the hospital. "'lhat she did was~ against--was her o\vn fault. .. Sometimes they had spools [that] would get ravel cL .. TIley had spindles made for them ... and [the workers] would put their knee. against it, and it \vould unravel that and try to sa e what you could Well, the 'I: omen diehl' want to do that so much, because it was too slow, so they'd put it on a fas t spindle--that you couldn't s op. And if you got your fmger caught under that, good by fmger. And Nellie wa putting this spindle on that. ..

Here, I am after that, settled dm:vn a little ... and all at once, this fellow come up to me, he said, "Here's Nellie 's finger!" .. I went out and lay down in the dressing room! ..

In the beaming room ... I never heard a bad word ... 'The girls would work and quit, work and quit. And new ones would come 011. And there for a long while, I was the only woman--onlv woman. I worked with tlle men, George Allison, and all them. I never heard those men sa - a word. Never! they were perfect gentle-men...

I didn't join the union ... Unions have got their good things and they've got their bad things, but I don't believe in people going on strike, being out of work, they never make it ll'; they're always the loser ...

One strike I remember .. . it was the late thirties ... I did not belong to the lnllOn, but they called the strike, fUld I can remember the people standing across Falls Road across the mill-- they never bothered me. Nobod said anything to me; because I went to work and came home lunchtime and all ... But it didn't last long. TIley went back to work. ..

Even though I lived at 705 [Field Street] all those years, 721 w as hotne ... It's just that 721's home, it'll always be home, and I just loved the Hill, and if I had my life to go over, I'd like to just go right ack down there and start all over.

Grandmother always had a crowd in that house. And I think about all our animals buried in that yard ... dogs cats, rabbits, birds--my grandmother always had a canary . .. And I think about all the people that died and been buried from that house. And that'll never happen again... I think about the duck pond in the back yard when ... I was no more than three... And had chickens ... It was like COlllltry• ..

Grandmother told me, when she lived do\V11 on Puritan Street, they had a pump somewhere ... and all the women met at that pump every day getting their buckets fwater .. . She said there used to be a man come around every once in a while with l-:rabs...

The Hill to me was a wonderful place to live~-and they don't make them like that any more... There'll never be, like, the old Hill. . . When we do get together and we talk about the Hill, it's about when we were kids, the good times we had, the nice people. And it was nice... And there's very few at us left. And I just wish you could have talked to some of those old ones ...