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Transcript on deposit at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Library
Citation of this interview should be as follows:
“Interview K-0188, in
the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007,
Southern Historical
Collection, The Wilson Library,
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill”
Elva Templeton remembers her childhood in historic Cary, North Carolina. She recalls a segregated city and describes the African American neighborhoods, remembering some of their respected inhabitants, whom she and other whites called "Aunt" and "Uncle." Researchers interested in Cary's history will find this interview useful, as Templeton reveals information about race relations in the town. Also, researchers interested in women's history will find insights into southern girlhood.
Elva Templeton remembers her childhood in historic Cary, North Carolina.
[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]
This interview is being conducted on January 24th, 1976 at Miss Templeton's home at 200 South Academy Street. The interviewer is Anne Kratzer representing the Cary Historical Society. When and where were you born, Miss Templeton?
Born in Cary, May 3, 1898.
And what were your father's and mother's names?
My father was James McPherson Templeton and my mother was Edith Burns Templeton.
Now your father was married previously. Can you tell me about his first marriage and to whom that was?
That was to a Rachel Jones Calderpink. And she was a sister to Alfred Daniel Jones, a representative counsel to China. They had four children, one girl and three boys. Two of the children died when they were quite small infants. Others lived to be well on in years.
How did they meet?
They were staying at the hotel. Her mother was there at the hotel with an uncle and they met there at the hotel while the boys attended some kind of convention.
Where was this?
Seattle
Washington. Now that was your mother that he met out there. Can you tell me how he came to practice in Cary after he married his first wife?
Well see, he practiced in around Dallas and Gastonia. His first wife was
visiting her aunt in Dallas and they met and of course fell in love and
married. Her people persuaded him to
And then how long were they married before his first wife died, about?
Well, when my mother, I think the boys were ten years old when they came.
She died of TB. Can you describe your father.
Well, he was medium height, straight as an arrow, thin, he wasn't fat.
How did he feel about things? What about his opinions?
Well he didn't mind giving his opinion. You couldn't change him too much unless he thought it was wrong.
Your mother said he should have been something - what was that?
Should have been a medical missionary because he just went to see people whether they had anything or not. Back then they didn't have an office, just went into the homes mostly in his early years. Of course in the latter years he had an office, but still he'd go at night or day even then. He'd go see the colored just as well as he would the white folks. And a lot of the colored people said that they had lost a real friend when he died.
He had a little phrase about when your mother would complain of him staying too long at one place talking. What was the little phrase that he said?
That was me. I'd get after him when I'd go with him, telling him to hurry up and come on and not talk so much. He said, well that was part of the medicine.
Did he receive payment for all of his visits? Did they try to substitute?
No. Some of them would bring him a watermelon or a chicken or the best of something. Some of them nothing.
Where was your home, your original home in Cary?
Oh, I remember, brought back fine memories up there where the elementary school is. Of course my mother and father lived down from there when they first married. He had a house built up here where the elementary school is, the primary buildings are. It was there on the place. Of course, that was torn down.
Right. Did he have an office?
Yes, he had a little office right in the yard up home. He didn't use it too much. He went into the homes mostly. I mean in his early practice.
What type of transportation did he use in his early practice?
Well, we had two horses, a red horse named Maude and a black horse named
So he had a horse and buggy?
Yes, a buggy. We had a wagon which they'd take the clothes to a colored woman on Monday morning, the kids would get up before school and take the little van, then go after them that afternoon.
Can you describe your mother?
She was short like me, but she was stout, not real fat but just plump.
She had a good sense of humor. I'll tell you about a little missionary
meeting here. She told them she wasn't going to give them anything but
water and crackers. So when they came and she got ready to serve, she
served them water and crackers and they all got up to leave and started
out the door. She said, come back here, I want to show you something.
She had ice cream and cake in the
Was it an Episcopalian prayer book?
Yes.
How did she feel about housekeeping?
Oh, she didn't like it. She didn't like to cook, she didn't like - she just wanted a housekeeper so she could spend her time painting or visiting. We always had a colored girl until I was about grown who came in to cook for us and clean up the house. She ran the house, go down and buy the groceries for us. She just did like that.
Where did she go to school?
She went to school in Canada at
And what did she take?
China painting and art. She was undecided whether to take math or china painting or whether to take art or math. I don't know. She finally decided on painting. I'm glad she did. If she'd had math, I couldn't see math, but I can see painting.
You have the pictures all over. Now your father, can we talk a little bit about his background, when he first started off.
He came from Lincolnton. He was an apprentice to a blacksmith when he first started, and then he worked in the drug store, got interested in medicine. His health was bad so he went over to Baltimore to medical school which has been taken over by the university since then.
What was that called? Did you say reading medicine, is that what?
Yes, it was spoke of as reading medicine. And he always had a, back then they only had doctors who just finished school come in practice with them, that's the way they interned. They didn't go to the hospitals like they do now. They practiced with an elderly doctor.
Was there a hospital?
Oh yes, in Raleigh there was Rex, I guess. I don't know when then…
Did Rex always exist?
It did as far as I remember.
Do you have any preschool memories before you went to school?
I don't know. I remember sitting under the porch making mud pies and my brother would make them too but he always wiped his hands on our dresses.
Now how many children did your mother have?
Five.
And who where they?
You want the names? Mary Edyth, that's Edyth is the way they spelled it and called it Edyth [like the male name Ed-ith]. And Ruth, Grace and Hugh and myself.
And are any of them living?
No.
You were a weak child when you were born? Tell us about that.
Yes, they said I was kind of weak. Papa was afraid I'd have TB and he'd keep me out of school for weeks at a time. He'd make me stay outdoors in the sunshine and fresh air.
Who was your first teacher?
Ms. Erma Ellis. She's still living. She's about 95 and she's in the Methodist home.
Tell us about the children looking out the window and seeing you, tell about the fence.
Oh yeah. This first grade teacher used to tell me, said that when I was in the first grade I'd usually stay out of school weeks at a time and the children would look out the window and see me run along the fence and wondered why I wasn't in school too.
Now in the beginning of Cary Elementary, or the Cary High School was what it was, was a boarding school? Can you tell us where the…
Well, it was originally, the Cary school was a private school run by Ms. Littleton and Ms. Lilly Jones was one of the teachers. I don't know too much about her. I was too young then to know. Anyway, I remember the wooden building and the boys, before they built the brick dormitories, the boys roomed upstairs. They had that dormitory above the classrooms. The bedrooms were up there. Of course, it had someone to cook in a separate building where they ate their meals.
Was this about, what, 1908, would you think when you were ten years old? Is this when you remember?
Well, when I first started school it was there. They didn't get the brick building until, I reckon about 1907.
So this was before that.
Yes.
Can you tell us about John Beckwith?
Oh, well he used to ring the school bells for us. We had a bell and I
wished they'd put it up in the yard at school where it should be. And so
he'd watch while we'd go down to the
What do you mean by tracking?
Tell his footprints, see if he came down the street. We had dirt sidewalks then so we'd look to see if he was around anywhere by the footprints.
Were you trying to stay away from him?
Yes, we didn't want him to see us there.
Were you not supposed to be down there?
Not much. But you know kids will do things if they get a chance.
True. Where was the store?
On the corner where the Fidelity Bank is. Mr. F.R. Gray, Pat Gray's father and uncle, Mr. Frank Gray, they ran the store. It was a general store. Everything. And we used to go down and get candy and miss school, and we'd go down. I knew my daddy would be standing there at the post office when the trains came in about 4 o'clock, so we'd go down and ask him for a penny to get candy. And you could get a piece of candy for a penny then. Now you'd pay about a dime for what we paid a penny for.
What did you take, what courses did you take? Do you remember what you took in grammar school?
Just everything, I reckon, that they offered.
What did you take in high school?
Well, we didn't have too much choice. I had home ec, and had science, history and English and math.
Did you have Latin?
Not in high school, I don't think. I took French.
French. And what sports did you enter into?
We didn't have much sports. I finally took basketball and had basketball later. The first time I went out to join basketball, the teacher hit me in the mouth with a basketball. And then we had our own games. And the boys had the baseball, of course. This was before basketball came in. That was later in high school. And we had all kinds of games though. Pop the whip, and we entertained ourselves. We didn't have any play equipment until later, the last year or two in high school. And played marbles, and played jack rocks. We didn't have any of these bought jack rocks, just pebbles.
Tell me how to play jack rocks.
Well, you had five jack rocks. You made a circle and you put a big one in the middle and four around. I mean, not four but you put several inside and one big one. And then you had one that you'd shoot it. You'd stand a certain distance from the circle and try to knock one out.
It was similar to marbles then?
Oh, I'm telling you wrong. I'm telling you about marbles.
Oh, that's the marbles. That's fine. What is pop the whip?
Oh, everybody takes a hand and makes a long row, a straight row. We had
to connect hands and then who's at the head of the line would start
running and the first thing the whole line is running, and the one on
the end is libel to be slung out into the field somewhere if they
couldn't hold on. Nobody liked to be at the end because you knew you
couldn't hold on
Did you have hide and go seek?
Oh yes, we played hide and go seek, stealing sticks.
Stealing sticks, what's that?
Well, you had a dividing line, you had two sides. And you had a great big circle way in the corner in the back of each field and what you did was to cross that line and steal a stick and bring it back and put it in your circle. But if you got caught you'd be put into prison. Another circle was the prison.
Did the other team try to catch you, like tag?
Yes, each one tried to go to the other one's, stealing sticks. And if they caught you, they'd put you in prison.
Were there any card games? How did the church feel about…
Well, the people, they didn't like… You weren't allowed to play cards. Oh well, you'd just be libel to be turned out from church play cards or to dance, those things. They just weren't heard of. Not here.
So what did you do then for entertainment?
Well, our Sunday School teachers always had parties during the year. They had pulling candy and ice cream suppers, things like that. We didn't have covered dish suppers and that stuff.
Tell us how you pulled candy, how it was made.
Well, it was made with just sugar, and water and flavoring. Then you cook
it until it got to a certain stage and then you pulled it. You got a
bunch of it, you'd better be careful when,
After you graduated from high school, what did you do then?
Well, I worked myself to death all summer, went to college in the fall.
What did you work at all summer?
Sewing, getting some clothes ready to go. You couldn't get as many clothes ready made as you do now. Of course you got some.
Did you sew?
Yes, I took home ec and I sewed and I sewed.
Where did you buy your material?
Had to go to Raleigh to get that.
And you did everything hand, everything was hand-sewn?
No, we had sewing machines. Except me, I didn't. My father wouldn't let us have a sewing machine.
Why?
He said too many women ruined themselves sewing. But we had a woman around here who sewed and she made some clothes.
What did he mean by too many women ruin themselves?
Peddling the old type sewing machine.
Oh, you mean selling clothes?
No, just sewing. Sewing day after day, hour after hour and peddle those machines. See, they didn't have electric machines.
So they spent too much time working on that.
It was too hard on their legs, he thought.
Oh, physically. Interesting. When you went to college, where did you go and why?
I went to Salem, Winston-Salem.
Why?
Well, my brother's people went to Salem, his grandmother and mother and some of his aunts and naturally they wanted me to go.
Where else had you applied? Where else were you thinking about?
I was thinking about going to Duke, up to W.C. there, it was W.C. then. But they wanted me to go to Salem and I'm glad I went. I was never sorry I went there.
Why did you want to go to college?
Well, I didn't think I'd do anything else. It was just instilled in me, I reckon. I just never thought I'd do anything else.
And what was your major?
Home ec. And I took straight A-B two years and then of course, my mother
didn't want me to take it. She wrote Dr.
What were some of your hobbies? What about music? Back then.
We had a record player with a great big old horn and we'd go into the
library up home and open the window and put the horn in the window and
play it just loud as it could. You could hear it all the way down the
street here cause there wasn't much traffic. You could come down here
and you could hear that thing.
What about any instruments?
Oh I had my piano when I was about twelve years old. Mother had gone to Canada and father went up to meet her and they stopped and got the piano on the way. I didn't know it until it came to the door. And of course, I took music then. And I liked it.
Who were your teachers?
My first teacher was a Ms. Clyde Harrison. She, of course, married a
You had said that you had played a lot. Did you play a lot?
Well, I wasn't much of a musician. I had to dig it out. I just didn't
have any talent. I think I didn't have any talent for anything except
sweeping the floor, washing dishes, and cooking. That's about all the
talent I had.
I don't believe that. What about your horses? Did you enjoy riding?
Yes, my mother had a western pony and she rode her a lot and I'd ride her too. Then in the early days, of course, I rode the horses my father drove. We kept the horses til they died. My father said they'd been so faithful he wasn't going to get rid of them, so we turned them out in the pasture when he got the car, just let them take life easy.
Now you started college in 1916, right. And the following year there was a severe flu epidemic. Can you tell us…
Yes, the '17 '18 flu epidemic. Well, we had three weeks' vacation and I saw my father about twice. He was going night and day to see patients.
What did he feel was a good treatment?
He said whiskey brought almost the best, did better than anything else he gave them. One dose, you know, just sort of like medicine. And so that pulled a lot of them through.
And yet how did he feel about drinking socially?
No, he was against it. He was a great prohibitionist. Go for any kind of liquor unless it was just for medicine, you know, things like that.
I remember reading before you were born he ran on a prohibitionist ticket for Governor.
Of course, he didn't win, everybody wanted to drink.
What else happened during that epidemic? Did you lose anybody in your family?
Yes, I lost a sister of pneumonia. She had the flu and then it went to pneumonia.
How did that affect your family?
Well, they just take things as they come.
Were there any jokes or pranks that were played? I know that Ms.
That was before my day, I guess, the Walker Hotel. Her customers had
fallen off and she didn't know why until she saw that sign up there -
scarlet fever here. And nobody came.
What about World War I? How did Cary react to that?
Well, we had of course some folks who went just like everybody else. We
lost one boy. My father volunteered and he examined soldiers during…
You were talking about your father volunteering in World War I.
Well, he said that they offered him the job of being the Captain. He said
he didn't know enough about it so he wouldn't accept it. And so when he
got to camp he found out he knew more than those who were captain.
Where did he go after camp? Tell us about the different places he served.
He served in a Camp Oglethorpe in Georgia and Camp Severe in Florida. And then he went to Durham and examined soldiers in Durham.
Did you ever go with him?
Yes, I went to Durham with him. At the wall we used to go down there lots and somebody'd holler, hey Dr. Templeton. He'd say, I reckon that's somebody whom I examined during the war.
What did you do now after you got out of college?
I went out to Kentucky to see if I liked home demonstration work, which I didn't.
What exactly is home demonstration work?
Well, its working with homemakers' clubs, different clubs, you know. Clubs for cooking, nutrition and things like that. And I knew they were better cooks than I was, even then.
So after you came back to Kentucky… How long were you in Kentucky, about?
I don't know, two or three months. Long enough to find out I didn't like it anyway.
So what did you do after that? What was your next employment?
Well, the next thing I did, oh I commenced to teaching. So I saw this ad in the paper wanting a teacher, so I wrote to the superintendent and asked for a position of teaching. He wrote me back, I have no position but I have a job if you want it. So I took the job, and it was a job cause I did everything. Taught school, taught Sunday school two groups on Sunday. One in the Methodist church on Sunday morning and the Baptists in the afternoons. And then I'd go to basketball for a long time I started. They didn't have any basketball, and so I started that and we only had… we didn't have a paved court, only a dirt court that we played. But I had a good basketball team, we just beat everybody around because the girls were strong, you know.
Where was this that you taught?
Arapaho.
In what county is that?
Pamlico. Five miles from the
And how many girls, how many girls and boys… was it co-ed?
Yes, it was a public elementary and high school like they used to have.
And what grades did you teach?
Well I taught high school there and I taught sixth grade one year. Back then you could teach anywhere they happened to have a vacancy. And I taught science, French and history, and home ec.
What were the requirements for being a teacher? Did you just have to have a…
You had to have a teachers' certificate. You could have an A or B certificate. See then, but now they've done away with C certificate, I think, and just A and B. And I think they gradually do away with the B.
How long were you there?
About ten years.
And then what did you do?
I went to another school. Then I went back to Arapaho. And then I taught
down in Cleveland School in Johnson County there for Mr.
When was this? About what date?
I reckon it was in the '50s, '60s, somewhere. Must have been in the 60s.
So you were down in Pamlico County until about 1926, 1930?
Somewhere between 26 and 29, I guess, cause I left and went back.
Right. Can you tell me about the, getting back to Cary now, let's talk a little bit about Cary as you remember it when you were in high school - the trains.
Well, there were trains about every hour of the day past noon. The freight train, and they'd go to Raleigh just at least twice during the day, a train in the morning and at noon and come back at morning and noon. And then the afternoon the Seaboard and Southern raced to Cary and especially on Sunday afternoons. Everybody, young folks would rush down to the station to see the trains come in. If the Southern came in first, we met it but if we'd hear the Seaboard coming, we'd run to the Seaboard, the Seaboard train.
What did it cost to ride a train to Raleigh?
I really don't remember. It wasn't as much as it is now, of course.
Did you go on any vacations when you were young?
Well, we used to go in Canada and up in the mountains. We spent a lot of time up in the mountains up between a little place called Plumtree between Spruce Pine and Blowing Rock.
And what type of home did you stay in?
Oh, we just had a house there, that's all I can say. Two stories, we had
a bed, chairs if we could find them or sat on boxes or the floor. And of
course we had a cook stove, not electric, a wood stove. My aunt did most
of the cooking, she was a good cook. We stayed outdoors, hiked a lot in
the mountains and went
I guess to return back to Cary. Can you tell me the different buildings that were in Cary? I guess we're talking about around 1910, 1920, between 1910 and 1920 when the Gray's.
The stores faced what they called Cedar Street, we called it Railroad Street and they changed the name, facing the railroad, there were stores there.
What type stores?
Just general merchandise, about everything. A blacksmith shop
What about the post office?
Post office was just a brick building on the corner where the fire house is, and it had an Episcopal chapel there and a store.
Is that the Episcopal chapel that burned, that's the one your mother went to? You said that there was a grist mill?
Yes. I had heard but I don't know. Miss Poplin didn't seem to think so, so I don't know. I never saw it.
Now there were two main churches in town.
The Methodist and the Baptist. We attended each other's church because we didn't have preachers in both churches every Sunday. The preachers were on a circuit, and preached at our church one Sunday, then maybe Holly Springs, and then maybe Gastonia, rotating that way.
What about religious practices? For instance, funerals. What was different about a funeral?
Well, they tolled the bell according to the number of years the person
was old. It was tolled. Old Uncle John Taylor, a colored man, used to
ring the bells for Sunday school, church and funerals. And nobody, of
course, could toll it like he did.
What about Christmas in the church?
Oh, we had a huge holly tree there. It must have been seven, eight feet tall covered in berries and in class small children got a little gift like a bag of confections. They had big barrels full of bags and the older people would get one of those. Of course the children had a program. We looked forward to that, you know. Everybody in the community that's a Methodist would go to hear the kids talk.
You had a nice custom on Christmas morning. You didn't open your presents until…
Well, we had an old colored man who had worked for us for twenty-five
years or more, anyway a long time. And he was getting kind of feeble.
But mother wouldn't let us get our Christmas presents until he came.
We'd get out on the porch and watch down the road to see him when he'd
come. We'd see him coming, we run and meet him and try to make him hurry
up.
What did you call that?
Hail over. And we made hats out of leaves. Used this broom straw and made
hats out of leaves, made play houses and all that stuff. Climbed trees,
ate green fruit. It was a good time. But now they have to be
entertained. We have to pay taxes to buy equipment for the
While we're talking about that, can you tell me how your mother brought up children?
Well, we'd mind and if we didn't we got a switchin'. And I mean it hurt too.
Was there a particular type branch?
She got a little switch from a peach tree or something and they sting, you know. Maybe you don't know. Of course the whipping chair had gone out of style now. The police would tell the momma's what to do, they tell me. I don't know. But anyway, I find them very nice in Sunday school, very cooperative. If they can raise them without whippin' them, more power to them.
You told a cute story about your father. Your father never whipped you but he came close to it? Tell us about that.
Oh yes. I was about to pull some green peaches off the tree. He told me to stop and I just wasn't about to until I saw him get up and he was going to switch me.
Do you remember much of the Depression and how it affected you and your family?
Yes, I remember. Daddy could hardly get enough money to buy gas. I was teaching and I had to wait from May until September to get my last month's pay that year. And they reduced us about forty dollars on our pay.
What were you paid normally for a year, about?
It wasn't two hundred dollars, maybe a hundred, a hundred fifty. I reckon a hundred fifty was a good price.
And did your father have any experiences not having money. I know you told a story of him going out to…
END OF SIDE 1
BEGIN SIDE 2
Oh, he went out on, I think, the Reedy Creek Road to see if he could get him some money to buy some gas with. The woman said, we'll sell our place and pay you. And my father said, no you won't either. He wouldn't take anybody's place, not for the world.
I know you mentioned your father's automobile. Who was the first in town to have an automobile?
I really don't know. I thought my brother was, and Miss Poplin said the other night that my father was, so I don't know. I know the first ride I took in one, so it might have been my father. Because my brother went out with the agent to learn how to drive so when he came back he wanted to take us for a ride and I was scared to death. I remember that.
Was it the noise that it made? What scared you about it?
No, I didn't know how he could drive, whether he could manage the thing or not. See, it was all new to everybody. Cars just coming out. He had a Ford. And I cranked that thing. I cranked it a million times, helped fix tires, and all that stuff.
It was quite a thing, I guess, when you were in school and a car… What would you do when you…
Well, when cars first came out there weren't but a few in Cary. If you could hear one coming up the street, up Academy Street, we'd all run to the window and look out to see it. Same thing about an airplane. I was teaching when airplanes became more common and we'd all run out in the yard and see the airplane go over. Oh boy.
What was the most difficult time of your life that you can remember? Was it your mother passing, or adjusting?
I reckon adjusting, I don't know. I guess that was it. I was afraid to get out of the room at night. Everybody was there. I locked the bedroom door and then I got so that I didn't mind going out in the hall and it just kind of gradually wore off. That fear of being alone.
How has retirement age, how are you enjoying your life now?
The best thing I enjoy about it, I don't have to get up no more and meet a deadline.
What do you do to keep yourself busy?
Well, I take art from Ms.
I would imagine that there are some older citizens that aren't as well adjusted as you. What can one do for them?
Well, I think they got to make up their mind to accept it. Get busy doing something, get involved in something and mix with folks. See people. If you're gonna sit at home and nurse your feelings, you'll be an invalid first thing you know.
Can you tell us a little bit about the relationship between the Cary people and as you say, the colored people?
Well, we had very good relationship with them. We had a good element of
colored people. I don't think we ever had very much trouble with them,
not more than we do the whites.
They had different schools. Can you tell about schools?
Oh yes, they had a colored school, about a two room, over on the road to the cemetery. I don't know how to tell that.
I think it's off of Shirley Drive now. Somewhere between Shirley…
It's down on some road going round here to the right of the school to Kildaire Farm Road, you turn off just below the ball field here at the elementary school used to be a road. They've closed it now. Used to be the old road and that's the way we went to the cemetery and there was a Christian church, a colored church. Then right beside it was this colored school until they built the nice school across the railroad for them.
That was the black school, which is now Kingswood?
Yes. Kingswood, I guess. I wonder what they changed all the names for. Why didn't they let them stay like they were?
Where was the white public school?
The first state high school from 1907 is this one up here, the elementary school was the first state public high school. And they used to have a free school called, I just barely remember that. It was facing Dixon Avenue, I think. The corner of Dixon and Chatham. This school up here at the head of Academy Street was a private school until the state took it over.
Now the colored people though still had their own school, their own church?
Yes, Ada Ruffin, I remember was one of the teachers. She was a very fine
colored person. She had her mother, I recall, Aunt Millie. We called
them aunts and uncles, the older people. We didn't dare call them
anything else. I mean, being disrespectful or anything in their
I notice that you call all lot of the men "Uncle." And then the women were "Aunt."
Yes for the older colored folks.
Where did they live? Did they live in a particular section of town?
Well there was a little place over here on Walker Street. I don't know
how to tell you to go there. You go out on this part right up there at
Park and Walker. That was Frogtown. And then farther down the road on
that same road street south was another settlement called Little
Washington. And then the others were just scattered around. And we had a
colored family who lived right back of us. Their property joined ours.
Very good, her name was Martha, we called her Babe Jones. Handy Jones
her father. And they were very good. Because we had a large
Tell me a little bit about, we have so many modern conveniences now. Tell me, what were your irons for clothes like?
At first it was a flat iron and then we had, an iron came out you put hot coals in it.
About when was that?
I don't know, I was quite small.
But it was before you left for college?
Yes, even before I went to high school. We had an ice refrigerator but the ice was brought in. You got say, a twenty-five pound block of ice and put it in the top of the refrigerator and your food kept cold.
Where did you get the ice from?
The men went around and delivered ice. The ice man. I suppose he got it from Raleigh though. The ice house over in Raleigh, they sold ice by the block. They'd go and get it, bring it out here and chop it up, the amount you want and put food in the bottom. And we never cooked much on Sunday. That was not to be doing.
When did you do your cooking?
Saturday. The main meal was done on Saturday. We maybe cook breakfast, something for breakfast. But we did our main cooking on Saturday.
Did you just reheat the food on Sunday?
Yes. Just reheat it. We didn't do a lot of things they do today. We didn't wash and iron and sew and do all that stuff, cut the lawn on Sunday, or work in the garden or nothing. You could go visit your friends on Sunday, or read or something like that. And the boys weren't allowed to play baseball. At least ours weren't.
It was a day of rest.
Of course the kids went to church and Sunday school.
How did you heat your house?
Stove. Wood stoves.
Did you stoke it all night long?
Yes. See my father had to get up a lot of times to go on calls at night. Put in great big old oak stick and shut the dampers off and kept the room warm. So if he had to get up the house would be warm.
How did your father die and when?
He died in '32. He went to see an old colored woman and turned his ankle and a blood clot formed.
Did he go to the hospital?
Oh yes.
Did they try to operate?
No. Doctor
END OF INTERVIEW