1 10 15 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/ea76f95b570158eb97a888a568ca0419.mp3 4e7f0b0a9185e48bfba17214cde7fdc7 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/1d2185dd5d687f2cf71c8da451a2cd4d.pdf 5c8d0c024ef9d8b171c7f2a9477f3b71 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Elizabeth Vickers Courtney Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Cassette tape Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 27 min. 4 sec. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Lalie Felis Location The location of the interview 27 Hillwood Drive, Mobile AL Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Lalie: Today is July 1, 1983. This is Lalie Felis. I'm interviewing Ms. Courtney at her home at 27 Hillwood Drive. This interview is part of the Growing Up in Mobile Oral History Project. (?) is taping this interview today. We're going to be talking about Ms. Courtney's experiences growing up in Mobile during World War II. We'd like to thank you for talking to us about your experiences growing up in Mobile. To begin with, can you state for the record, your full name and when and where you were born? E.V.C.: Elizabeth Vickers Courtney. I was born in 1930. Do you want the date? February 2nd, 1930. I was born in Mobile. Lalie: Who were your parents and what did they do for a living? E.V.C.: My mother was Gene Inmas Vickers; my father was Marion Richard Vickers. My father was an attorney and my mother was a housewife. Lalie: Did you have any brothers and sisters? E.V.C.: Yes, I had one brother. His name was Marion Vickers, Jr. He is 5 years younger than me. Lalie: Where did you live in Mobile when you were growing up? E.V.C.: Well I was born, when I was born we lived on Houston Street, then we moved to Old Government Street, then we moved to Ashland Place, and then we moved out to Springhill and I lived in this house next door here, my mother's house, when she still lived, we were there since 1936, I was 6 years old when we moved here. Lalie: Where did you go to school? E.V.C.: I went to Visitation Academy through the 6th grade, and I went to Springhill School, which was a public school by Mary B. Austen, and then I went to Murphy, and then I went off to school after that. I went to Washington D.C. Lalie: What was your favorite subject? E.V.C.: I guess Math. Lalie: Who were some of your favorite teachers? E.V.C.: Well, Ms. Mary B. Austen was our teacher in the 7th grade. [...] She died in the middle of the year when we were in 7th grade. She was a great person, she was absolutely one of my favorites. And I had some good teachers at Murphy, Ms. Edith Murphy taught me math and she is also pretty famous in Mobile. She died about 3 or 4 years ago and she loaned me a couple of books and I guess it was her father that Murphy High School was named for, I'm not sure, or her husband, I forgot, anyway she's related to the man that Murphy was named for. Ms. Gay (?) was a Latin teacher at Murphy that I liked, and Ms. Bragg (?) was my Science teacher. I guess that's about, well let's see, that's about all I can think of. Lalie: What did you want to do when you grew up? E.V.C.: Um, I guess, I just wanted to get married and have children. We didn't think about having careers as much at that time, you know, girls just kind of [...] Lalie: What were some fun things that you did when you were growing up? E.V.C.: We used to climb trees, we used to build pine straw huts. Our favorite thing was to go to the pumping station and go swimming, where the reservoir is over there and they had these big swimming pools that came from a waterfall that came out of the reservoir and that was the big thing. Lalie: What were the things that your family, that you and your family did for recreation? E.V.C.: Well, let's see, we used to go over the Bay, sometimes, and...I can't really think of too much that we did as a family. We took a few trips, not too many. We used to go to Chattanooga, we went to Lookout Mountain a couple of times, my grandmother used to live out there. Lalie: Did you have any hobbies? E.V.C.: Um, I used to play alot of badminton, that was the big thing when I was a teenager. We had a court up there. And, um, I was one of the Girl Scouts, I did alot of work with them. Lalie: Who were some of your best friends? E.V.C.: Um, Sally Title(?) was a good friend of mine, she used to live about 3 or 4 houses up on Hillwood and she's still a good friend of mine. (?)Phillipson (?) in fact she's on the library board [...] and Nettle Grier (?) was a good friend, her name is Simpson(?) now. Nettle was a real good athlete, she still is, she used to have a horse, we used to have a real good time riding her horse, I wasn't that good at it but she was and we used to play alot of baseball and football, we played with the boys alot, there weren't too many girls at Springhill, everybody kind of just got together and we did whatever the boys wanted to do really and...what was your original question? Lalie: Who were some of your best friends? E.V.C.: Oh yeah, and Mary Cook was a good friend of mine, she moved out here I think when we in the 7th grade and she was also really good friend of mine, she works for the CIA...and that's about it I guess. Lalie: Did young people at this time gather in any certain places? E.V.C.: Um, no, not at Springhill, we just played in the woods or at somebody's house, some people had little, what they called playhouses, they were kind of like doll houses, you know, they were just a little room that was built separate from the house, alot of people had those, and we would do that but most of the time we really played outside. Lalie: What were some of your favorite places in Mobile? E.V.C.: Well, we used to go to the Country Club, and swim and hang around up there alot and uh, I thought I had written some other place down here, of we used to go to Weinacker's and get milkshakes and sodas and things like that. Do y'all know where Weinacker's was, it's not called Weinacker's anymore, but it's on the corner of Government and Catherine Street, I think it's a Delchamps now, it was a drugstore and that was kind of a favorite hang out. And also Van Antwerp drugstore downtown, was a big hang out, they used to have a lunch counter, we used to go down there and that's where we would eat. Lalie: What was your favorite music when you were growing up? E.V.C.: Well, of course the Jitterbug was popular at that time and the big band [...] big band music, and later we got into show tunes. Lalie: Who was your favorite sports figure? E.V.C.: Good question, well, I remember Joe DiMaggio, baseball, Babe Ruth, and Joe Lewis, I remember him real well in boxing, heavyweight champion, um, Bobby Jones I guess, in golf, that's all I can think of off hand. Lalie: What styles of clothing were popular? E.V.C.: Well, when you're saying the 30's and 40's, you know, you're taking a large period of time into consideration, so, if you start back in the 30's, uh, you were just coming out of the roaring 20's and just coming out of the Charleston era. In the 30's the skirts went down, you know, and then the new look came along in the 40's, and we wore these full skirts and everybody wore half the petticoats under the full skirts, I mean just daytime clothes, you know, like a wool skirt, real full, with a plaid petticoat, you always had to have a plaid petticoat, something that showed, you know. And the new look was a little short jacket and a scarf and that was not exactly when the new look came out but I think it was like in the middle 40's. The 30's were kind of a dull period, the dresses were very drab, after the 20's you know when they were real short, and then flash to the 30's it was kind of dull. Lalie: What was your favorite food? E.V.C.: Spaghetti and meatballs, I guess. We didn't have pizza in those days, I think it was unheard of, I think the first I ever had any was when I went to Europe in 1954, I had some then. Lalie: Did you have a favorite rest or eating place in Mobile? E.V.C.: Um, the Dew Drop, it's been good all these years, y'all know about the Dew Drop? And, uh let me think, Constantine's was downtown at that time and it was good. We didn't have very many restaurants in those days. Lalie: What was downtown Mobile like when you were growing up? E.V.C.: Well, it was just like a small town, you know, that you would go through, I guess. Dauphin Street was the big, the prime property, you know like Fountain Square, and we had 3 or 4 good stores down there, and Constantine's was a good restaurant and Van's was a (?). The Square was alot prettier then than it is now, not so many bums hanging around, it was a nice place to go. It was kind of like any small town. Lalie: Where did people shop? E.V.C.: Well downtown we had Gayfer's and Hammel's and Goldstein's, that's a jewelry store, and (?), that was a shoe store, and Cress's (?) was a 5 & 10 cent store, they were all in the same area right on the Square. Madison's (?) was there, it was a men's store. We had, I guess a line of them. Lalie: Where was the edge of town? E.V.C.: The edge of town was really I guess you'd say where the Loop is and, uh, I guess maybe Florida Street before you really got into Crichton, Crichton was kind of a separate area. Lalie: What kind of transportation did you have besides cars? E.V.C.: When I first moved to Springhill there was a trolley, it came out and tracks ended up there near where Mary B. Austen's School is and it came at kind of an angle from Springhill Avenue, it didn't come by the same route that the roads are on, it just came kind of through the woods. But it wasn't, that didn't operate too long, I can't remember when it stopped but probably in the late 30's and then they put in a bus there. We used to ride the bus to Murphy and back, well we rode it home, my father used to take us to school. We always rode it home, buses were alot safer then than they are now, although they were still crowded, of course there were certain [...]. Most families you know had the one car, I mean it was kind of, I can't remember when we got our second car, it was I guess, I think it was in the 40's when we got our second car, most families just had one. Lalie: What are some of your memories of World War II? E.V.C.: Well I can remember the rationing. Sugar was rationed, shoes were rationed, we got 2 pair a year, which wasn't too bad for the grown people but if you had growing feet, you know, it got bad. And whiskey was rationed, and oh gas, I guess that was the big thing, you know, it didn't bother me too much, because I wasn't driving. It was really though, if you wanted to go somewhere and you had to save up your gas tickets or borrow some from somebody else or get em someway or another. It was hard to have enough to get where you're going. Lalie: Do you remember any changes in Mobile during this time? E.V.C.: Brookley Field, you know, was built in Mobile at that time and that was a big thing , you know, because of the big installation it was, they hired alot of people, and they had alot of military personnel. Lalie: Did more people move to Mobile during this time? E.V.C.: Oh yeah, alot of people. When the shipbuilding industry built up and like I said Brookley hired alot of civilian help, besides the military personnel. We had a big [...] Lalie: Did you know any of these newcomers? E.V.C.: Yeah, we knew the General at Brookley, General Molass(?) and his daughter was in my class at school. I guess my parents knew some others, I can't think of any offhand. Lalie: Were there any newcomers moving into your neighborhood? E.V.C.: Yes,uh, this is during the War that we're talking about? Housing was kind of hard to get during the war, you know [...] One of our good friends, Carter Smith, I think she's the one that told y'all to contact my mother and probably me too, she has alot to do with the Historical Society and historical thing in Mobile, but they had been living in St. Lewis and they moved back to Mobile at that time and they weren't able to find a house, you know, that they wanted, on this street or anywhere near, they finally bought one over in Springhill, not Springhill Manor but Country Club Village. Springhill Manor and Country Club Village were two of the housing projects that were built during the war and they were supposed to be temporary housing but they're still standing. People have remodeled and added on to them. So they moved in there, I remember that. Oh, we really didn't have too many newcomers on this street, because everybody that lived here had, you know, lived here for a long time, there were not too many people moving and like I said not many houses were available during that time. Lalie: How did people feel towards these newcomers? E.V.C.: Um, I don't remember any ill feelings towards the newcomers. Maybe some in the older generation might have had some but me, I've always been glad to meet new people, it was fine with me, I liked it. Lalie: Did you have alot of new students enrolling in your school? E.V.C.: I guess we did. I don't remember any crowded situation in the school. I'm sure we had more because there were more people moving in but I don't remember any great crowding. Lalie: Were the mother and fathers of any of your friends in the military or working out in Brookley Field? E.V.C.: I would say no. We had met, like I said, the Molasses(?) but they weren't really close to us. Lalie: Do you recall seeing alot of servicemen or military personnel? E.V.C.: Some, not much. Lalie: Do you remember people in Mobile volunteering for war work? E.V.C.: Oh yeah, I remember we knitted sweaters for the Red Cross at the Mary B. Austen School. We knitted little bitty sweaters, size 4, and size 2 I can remember doing a couple of those, and they were sent to, you know, people overseas that needed supplies. And we knit squares, we knit afghans I think, to send to people in the cold who needed some cover, we knit squares and sweaters. Alot of people did volunteer for the Red Cross and all kinds of things like that. Lalie: What about women employment? Did they work anywhere? E.V.C.: Well I'm sure they did, you know, hearing about Rosie the Riveter and everything, but I was too young to really pay that much attention to it and of course my mother didn't work and you know the people that I knew very well did, but you know I'm sure there was alot of that. Lalie: Do you remember any of the ways in which the war affected everyday life in Mobile? E.V.C.: Well, of course the rationing, you know, was a big thing and of course I remember each day being so interesting in the news. Well, alot of our friends had sons that were killed, things like that, and of course you were always on edge wondering who was going to be next. My family didn't have anybody that was really in the service directly connected with them so we didn't, we don't have anybody that close to us but we had alot of friends who had loss. Lalie: Do you remember the blackouts and the air raid drills? E.V.C.: Yeah, I remember those vaguely. I don't remember how many we had but I do remember them. Lalie: What were some changes in the appearance of Mobile? E.V.C.: Well, I can remember, Springhill was just really in the sticks and when we moved here, this street wasn't paved out here and my mother had you know landscaped her property over here and livestock kept coming in the yard and tearing up and stepping in this new [...] and tore it up so she built a cattle gap, built this fence out here. Y'all know what a cattle gap is? It's iron bars, like see where the driveway is up there, where the opening is in the fence, you put these iron bars and you cement them into the ground and they're about this far and they're about this wide, and the cattle can't go across em because if they step, you know, they would go down in it, and so that was to keep the livestock out. In fact there's a cattle gap right here, between [...] that's what that was too, although that's a draining system now but originally I think it was, we've always called it a cattle gap. So it was quite different out here than it is now. This really went way out in the woods. Lalie: Did Mobile look different or seem different after the war? E.V.C.: Well of course it built up, so I'd say we were in the sticks before the war and then, I can remember when Airport Boulevard was called Grant Street and it was just a two way street. There was hardly anything on it between the Loop and out here. At that time, when I first started driving, which was probably about 1946, I guess, my mother always said, "Don't go to Grant Street, it's too lonely." Can you imagine Airport Boulevard being lonely? But it was, there was nothing on there. So we'd always come Old Shell Road, and of course Dauphin Street wasn't there. Old Shell Road was more populated so we felt safer driving out on town, can you believe that? Lalie: What things seemed to stay the same? E.V.C.: Oh dear. Some of the buildings downtown, you know, like the Merchant's Bank, that's been there forever. Well you know, the whole plan of the city stayed the same, just built up, some of the old homes, Government Street, in a way, it's the same, in a way, it isn't, it's been so commercialized but still alot of the old homes are still there and the beautiful old trees. Everything else pretty much stayed the same except for the shopping centers and traffic is so much worse and of course South Alabama being built out here, you know, changed it a whole lot. That's all I can think of on that. Lalie: Did Mobile remain dry after prohibition? E.V.C.: Um...hmmm, do you mean during prohibition or after it was repealed? Lalie: During prohibition. E.V.C.: During prohibition. Well, everybody was kind of, getting it from somewhere. I don't want to incriminate everybody but there was plenty of it around, of course I was too young. I can't remember when prohibition was repealed, but I think it was, I can remember my daddy having kegs in the attic, and that was after we moved down here and that was 1936. I don't remember exactly when it was repealed but it was going around. Lalie: What were the differences between Mardi Gras now and then? E.V.C.: Well, of course, they used to have the coronation on the wall on the waterfront, I never did see that, that was before my time, my mother talked to me about that all the time. So that was quite different. And it was just on a much smaller scale than it is now. Basically, you know, everything was still, we'd still have the same coronation. Lalie: What did you do for Mardi Gras? E.V.C.: What did I do for Mardi Gras when I was young? Well, we used to go downtown and I remember one of the best times I had was when I went down with just 2 or 3 friends and I had just [...] and my momma let me go by myself. We didn't do a thing, we'd just walk around town and have lunch at Morrison's and you know it was just so much fun being on my own. Lalie: Did you and your friends ever discuss the war? E.V.C.: Well, I guess we did, you know, I just don't remember that too well, and like I say, I'm sure we, most every family had somebody that was in the service that was connected [...] get by without being affected by it. I don't remember. I remember when, the day that Roosevelt died and that made a big impression. I remember coming home on the bus that day and finding out. I can't remember exactly which year he died but I was at Murphy then so I guess it was probably early 40's, 43 or 44. Lalie: How was your family affected by the war? E.V.C.: Well, not a whole lot, as I said, because we didn't have anybody in the service, but of course we were affected by the rationing and things like that but, you know, it didn't affect my father's business, you know, he was a lawyer. It affected us in some ways because of the transportation, because of the gas rationing, because we did live out here in the sticks and we weren't able to just drive into Mobile anytime we wanted to like y'all can do now, like we all do. Lalie: Are there any other things from the war you might want to add? E.V.C.: I can't think of anything. Lalie: You've been very kind to let us interview you today. We'd like to thank you. E.V.C.: Well, thank you, I've enjoyed it. Lalie: This interview will add to our record of this time. Thank you very much. E.V.C.: Okay. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Elizabeth Vickers Courtney Interview - 1 July 1983 Subject The topic of the resource Oral history interviews Description An account of the resource Oral history interview of Elizabeth Vickers Courtney at her home at 27 Hillwood Drive Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mobile Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Growing Up in Mobile : Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949, Interviews Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Relation A related resource Descriptions of Oral History Interview Tapes Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-Up-in-Mobile-Elizabeth Courtney Vickers Interview-1983 Brookley Field Constantine's Dew Drop Inn Elizabeth Vickers Courtney Mary B. 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For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Lalie Felis Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Joaquin M. Holloway, Sr. Location The location of the interview Mobile Public Library, downtown Mobile Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Cassette tape Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 56 min. 15 sec. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Lalie: Today is June 27, 1983. This is Lalie Felis. I'm interviewing Mr. Holloway at the library in downtown Mobile. This interview is part of the Growing Up in Mobile Oral History Project. DeJuan Kidd is assisting with the interview today. We are going to be talking about Mr. Holloway's experiences growing up in Mobile during the Depression. We'd like to thank you for talking to us today about your experiences during the time you were growing up in Mobile. To begin, would you state for the records your full name and when and where you were born. Holloway: My full name Joaquin Miller Holloway. I was born in Mobile, do you want to know location? To be exact I was born on Fisher's Alley, I don't remember the house number. I lived there only about year so there are very few things I remember about that residence. Shortly thereafter I moved to Carlton, Alabama, where my mother was born. I have a very vivid recollection of that house. It was a log cabin, one large room, and next to that an adjoining room which was used for the kitchen, a front porch, the windows were made of boards, which swung open and shut, had a big fire place, cook stove. Lalie: Who were your parents? What did they do for a living? Holloway: My father's name was Harrison Holloway. He came from Demopolis, Alabama. To my best knowledge, he was a house painter. I have very few recollections of my father because at a very early age my mother and father separated for reason I don't know. My mother was a domestic servant. She came from a very large family in Carlton. But she came to Mobile at a very early age to go to school. From what I hear, she learned to, she took jobs learned to cook keep house. I remember hearing her say once that she never worried about a job because she knew Miss Ann wouldn't going to work. But my mother had various jobs and I can remember times when her salary was $2 a week, can you imagine times like that. But people learned to manage and like most ladies, she was a master at that. Lalie: Did you have any brothers and sisters? Holloway: I did have, no sisters really, I had brothers. One brother older than I named, we called him OT, his name was Orlando(?) Thomas. I had two younger brother the one next to me was names Charles and he lived to get almost a year old about big enough to crawl around but he died in infancy and my older brother who's name was Julius, names after my grandfather, died a couple of weeks or more, very very early. Lalie: Where did you attend school? Holloway: I attended school first up in Carlton. My first teacher's name was Miss Dollie Drew (?). She was a very outstanding individual she had one of those voices that one could recognize anywhere in the dark, you just didn't hear voices like that often. So I went to school in the country about four years and at the age of ten I moved back to Mobile and went to school at what later became Caldwell (?) School, at that time it was called Bochley (?) School and Mr. Caldwell was the principal at that time. My teacher's name was Miss Essie Sheperd. I went there one year and the next year I went to boarding school up in Wilcox County. The name of the school was Art and Literary and Industrial Institute (?), was there one year and came back to Mobile the next year and went to school at Emerson Institute in the 5th grade. My teacher at that time was Miss Wilber Weaks Burrow, her name was Wilber Weaks at that time but she lived at Mr. Burrow's. They named a school that still in honor of her come years ago. Lalie: What was your favorite subject? Holloway: Mathematics. Lalie: Who were some of your favorite teachers? Holloway: Favorite teachers? I already mentioned Miss Dollie Drew (?). I must mentioned Mr. Joe (?) Allen graduated from Knoxville College. He was tops, he was thoroughly familiar with his subject. He taught me mostly Latin and mathematics, algebra and was a dedicated teacher. In Mobile, I shall always remember Miss Rosalee Isinger (?) who was a graduate of Tallagium (?) College and she was really an inspiration to students. I remember so well some of the things we did under her suggestion. In my junior year in high school, she got a class to open [...?] People's Bank which later collapsed and we lost that little money we had but that wasn't much but we did begin our practice of putting money into banks at that time and we had a club called [...?] Social Club. The duties of [...] were to read books and at meetings each member would tell what he did what he did learn from that book he read and just a review to the rest of the members and that way we did get acquainted with alot of the works of various authors. Lalie: What did you want to be when you grew up? Holloway: I had no fix idea at the time when I was growing up. When I entered college, however, I had an urge to become a medical doctor and consequently I majored in chemistry and I was one of the top students in chemistry when I was in college. As a matter of fact, when it came time to name to scholar for the year, I was in my senior year, the choice was narrowed down to two people that were Eleanor Thompson from New Orleans and myself. Eleanor Thompson won the award. But I remember so vividly one day she and I were in the classroom together and she said I wish I knew as much chemistry as you do. Lalie: When you came home after school did you have any after school chores to do? Holloway: Oh yea. I delivered the Mobile Press in the afternoon and in the morning I got up before school and delivered the Mobile Register. Aside from that there were very little things on school days. Lalie: What are some of the things you did for fun when you were growing up? Holloway: Fun. We had several games we used to play. Shooting marbles and we had another game we entertained ourselves with marbles, we would put little holes in the ground shaped like a baseball diamond, little holes for home plate, first, second, third, and you would start off with a line behind home plate and shoot the marbles and the object was to get into the holes and back here as soon as possible and then we would shoot regular marbles we would draw a circle put a line down the center and put marbles in there and get back from that circle about four or five feet and each contestant would put one or two marbles in that circle all the marbles he would knock out belonged to him. And we had alot of fun like that but some of the boys got cagey and I don't know if any of you know but at one time glass whiskey flask had a glass stopper with a round head and a flat head and a tip that goes down through a cork some of the boys would break that tip off so they would have a flat disc and they would shoot that disc and they had much better control over that disc than they had over a marble, and if they weren't careful they would break it. Lalie: What were some things that your family did for recreation? Holloway: Let's say a few more things if you don't mind, I mentioned only marbles we had a game Running Over and that game consists of a group of boys and one boy would get on a line and kneel over and clasp his hands around his ankles and the boys would run and leap over him. Then after all of them had their try this boy would move up a little further and he would get up so far that the leaper [...?] would have to fall out and the ones that cleared the greatest distance was declared the winner. And we rode bicycles, skated and I must say that skating in my day was much more fun than it is now in the street or the sidewalk I should say because the sidewalks today are so dirty so much sand and gravel and stuff like that that it isn't any fun skating. Of course you have skating rinks now and you probably have more fun that we did on the streets. Lalie: What were some things that your family did for recreation and relaxation? Holloway: That I don't know other than going to church, my mother was very good about going to church now I remember the year I spent in Demarcus I was about five years old but my grandmother on my father's side and father. My father took me to the circus and the circus was pitched just oh about 200 yards from where we were living at my grandmother, my mother, and father's house and at night we could hear the lions roar and it was fierce sound I could easily see why just a roar of a lion would cause another animal to cower and take flight but my father took me to the circus one day and we sat down and watched all the acts and the men riding those tall unicycles and the clowns coming out and the equestrians riding the horses but when they announced the lion act my daddy said to me come on boy lets go I didn't bring my 44. We left. Lalie: Did you belong to any clubs? Holloway: You mean when I was youth, nah I can't think of any clubs I belonged to. Lalied: Who were some of your best friends? Holloway: First of all I think one Ripley Simmons. He was the nephew of this Miss Rosie Isinger of whom I spoke of a few moments ago. One of the finest persons I knew and I had other good friends Eugene Patterson and oh there when I was in college I think of alot of classmates I had there who were much more recent acquaintances T.R. Miller, (?), Dan Kennan (?), Bernie Young, James Tony, Waylon G. McCoo who is now Dr. McCoo and lives in Los Angeles. My roommate James Tony became a physician officer, but he died at an early age. I could go on, on with friends now. Lalie: Did young people at this time gather in any certain places? Holloway: We went to the theater and that was alot of fun. I used to go to the Pike (?) theater regularly that was my hangout I almost got into trouble going because one year when I was living with my uncle Alex my mother was away in Chicago at that time and my uncle had forbade me to go to the movies on Sunday but I had little jobs before I make money [...?]. My first job was at a barber shop down on Dauphin Street between Stoton Bottle (?) and Steve's Barber Shop. I made my money shining shows and cleaning [...?] so I had my money and I could go to the show and I would go to the show because Eleanor Lincoln was an outstanding character at the time and that was a serial and they would show you just enough of the movie that day to make you want to come back. [...] was always in danger when the film terminated for that say so we were eager to get back to see how it came out. But I used to go to the Pike and when the show was over I would run all the way home from Pike Theater to (?) Avenue. Fortunately I don't think I ever got a whipping for going to the theater because they didn't know I was there and I said we use to ride bicycles but now I never went to a dance until my junior year in high school, the junior prom but we use to go and look through the crack at ball games out at Dixie Park. Dixie Park was situated at that time just north of Davis Avenue and this side of Three Mile Creek. That was a big area there but it was a fun center for most of the grown-ups and children at that time. And in later years they built another ball park called Brookley (?) ballpark that was just south of where Central High School is located right down between Vasal (?) and Conde street in that area. It lasted for quite a while. Lalie: What was downtown Mobile like when you were growing up? Holloway: Downtown Mobile was small but it was a very interesting place. We had several theaters then: Crown Theater, Empire Theater, Lyric Theater, Saenger Theater was the newest of the lot but they were all located within three blocks of each other and when one got coming Dauphin Street which was considered the heart the center of town, it still is used as a point of reference for north and south now but Royal and Dauphin were considered the heart of town at that time. As I was saying when we got down to about Jackson street you got into a neighborhood where the stores were and at that time there were hardly any empty spaces there all those blocks were full of shops and stores and downtown really looked nice at that time. Lalie: Did you have a favorite eating place in downtown Mobile? Holloway: No, I didn't eat out I can think of very few instances where I've bought say a hotdog on the street in the past. I go back to my mother and some of the things she taught us and one of her favorite sayings was Don't want for anything that you know that you can't afford, and to this day my son remembers her because he had the feelings he could always get some money from grandmother when he knew he couldn't get it from any other source. I have a cousin Marshall Nettles with whom she took up a great deal of time when he was a child. She had the feelings that Marshall was kinda outcast from the rest of the family meaning of course that more attention was given to the other children there were two other children older than Marshall and of course some of them were younger than he but my mother gave alot of attention to him. And to this day theu always think of her very very dearly. It was she who use to go and come and when we were living in the country my mother was living in Mobile most of the time she would come up there and Carlton was about 12 or 16 miles from Jackson which was the nearest depot and when anyone left Carlton to go to Mobile or any other place where they had to catch a train they would ride up to Jackson usually in a wagon or buggy and sometimes we would get a ride with the mail rider as you would call the rural rider had a horse and buggy and you would go from Carlton to Jackson and sometimes people would ride up there with him but when word got out that [...] that's what they called my mother her name is in that book. When word got out that she was coming and someone would go out and meet her. In the afternoon by the time that the children thought she returning all eyes were looking up the road and when they saw that vehicle approaching the children would go and meet her and she always bring some little gift for each one and that's saying alot because we were a large family. And she had this knack of remembering birthdates and she knew the names and birthdates of all the children. I was telling someone just a few days ago when I was down here to the museum when we saw the names of riverboats: John Quill, the Gattenburg and I use to ride the John Quill from Mobile to Carlton or the (?) Bluff which was the name of the boatlanding we use to get on [...] in the afternoon and eat supper and then go to bed, sleep, and wake up in the morning and have breakfast on the steamboat. And before we got up there and the same things would happen on the way from home up to Mobile. W use to get on there, eat supper, go to bed, and wake up early in the morning to have breakfast and get up to Mobile. As a child one of the enjoyable sights for a little boy and I imagine for a girl too, looking at the river coming up over that big paddle wheel to see the white water and then fall into the [,,,] for yards behind the boat…. I remember when the boat stopped at _______ to take on some cattle. Those boats used to bring cotton, hardwood, hogs, and livestock from those country places in Mobile. That long plank they put from bank to the boat called a ___________. I saw one man trying to get a cow on to the boat and, the boat, the man, and the cow fell off that plank into the water. Luckily, they were not ________. It was a lot of fun to watch, I guess. Lalie: What are some of your memories of the depression? Holloway: During the depression, things were hard to come by. I don’t recall any suffering during the depression. I really think that people had to be careful and make use of what they could get a hold of. I really don’t know of anyone suffering. I’m not saying that they didn’t but, I do remember bread lines and things like that. I was working up in ____________ for about six weeks that’s in Monroe, County. I do remember bread lines up there. Those people that live on farms and farmers, usually keep enough food on the table. They don’t starve. They don’t have a lot of clothes to wear and things like that but, they do have food to eat and enough clothes. So, I don’t have any real bad memories about the depression. I can remember some of the paychecks. For example, my first year working up in _____________, which was my mother’s home. I had an uncle that lived there at the time and he had a family of four boys and two girls. We had finished school. The contract I signed that year with the county. I was supposed to get twenty dollars a month from the county and twenty dollars from the people in the community through goods or cash. I’m quite sure I didn’t get all five of those twenty dollars from the county either. I don’t know what I got from the county. As I said, I was living with my uncle and he was a very injustice man. He had plenty of food and a large farm. As a matter of fact, he accumulated a tremendous amount of land just by hard work and _________. I think at the time of his death he had ownership of something like three or four thousand acres of land that was divided among his children. One of his sons, who was in school at the time I was teaching up there, is now a member of the factory of Tuskegee Institute. He is in the Agricultural Department. He’s been there for years and he really loves his work. We jokingly ask him at times why he didn’t get his Phd degree and he says the people that have a Phd here come to me for advice. I can understand that because he grew up on a farm and really knows what it’s all about. I should say that nearly all of us _______ with whom I lived with that year. Going to school and they got their degree. It was only one of them out of two. One of the sons lives here now. He, like his daddy, did not like school but he was very smart. He worked for many years at Alabama Power Company and accumulated a lot of property here in Mobile. The baby boy in the family was very smart. He spent time in the military service and I understand that he is an excellent mechanic. He just didn’t make the best use of his talent. The baby girl got her masters’ degree and lived in ______, Michigan and she has a daughter who has her masters’ degree. The oldest boy in the family got his degree in college and taught at Florida Central in Daytona Beach. He still lives in Daytona Beach now. (Ask me another one. I think I have said all that I wanted to say on that one. ) Lalie: Do you remember people coming around asking for food? Holloway: Asking for food? I don’t remember that. _____________. I really don’t remember instances like that. Lalie: What was Mardi Gras like? Holloway: Mardi Gras is the same that it is today except that the carriages was drove by a mule. Very few was drove by a jeep. They became mortilized in the recent year. I can remember this _________ in the Mardi Gras. Even when I was a boy I can remember that ghost and skeletons chasing at the man around that little pile with some balloons or something like that. 28:30 Lalie: What were some changes in the appearance of Mobile? Holloway: Changes in the appearance? One of the most striking changes that I think of is the number of automobiles. I can remember at my church, Lily Baptist, at one time usually, if you were lucky, you could count five automobiles. I can remember a time where there were fewer than five automobiles at the church. Now, we have a large parking lot. As a matter of fact, we have three areas. One across from the west side of Kennedy St. and there is a huge lot adjacent to the church between Kennedy and _________. Then there is a small lot across from it. Very recently, I think the church spent something like _________ adding this big lot. So, there are a lot of automobiles. I noticed over the years how the churches have put extra burdens on the members asking for a lot of __________. I can remember when our church was heated by a big _____ stove and the ventilation was just raising the window. Now we have an air condition, central heat, and amplification of sound. That’s something that spoiled a lot of people. I was telling someone yesterday, when I was down at Texas St, ________..... and the speaker could not make ________and I told someone sitting next to me in my day Dr. _______ could be heard all over this room without any trouble often. I said I can even make myself _______without a microphone and that is true. There are many people who do not ______.... and that I think is one of the causes of the PA system people rely so much on that. A lot of people don’t even know how to use it after they get it: they keep their mouths too close to the speaker and sometimes you can hear their lips part when they talk. Some of them shout in it which is unnecessary. If u get the proper application, you can almost whisper and you heard it. So those are some of the things I remember about that. Now there were no skyscrapers here. I can remember when the ____ was building the Dauphin ___, the tallest building in Mobile. I remember when the Merchant National bank was built. It was, at that time, the tallest thing. Shortly thereafter, the ____________ was built right across the street. I don’t know if it exceeded the Merchant; maybe so, just a few feet, but they were both tall. Of course, you probably remember when the first National bank was built. It is perhaps the tallest thing Riverview Plaza. I got to check up on the number of feet that the Riverview Plaza is. Downtown, at that time, was an attractive place. I think it was kept clean. I can remember so well, at night they had men with [...] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Joaquin M. Holloway, Sr. Interview - 27 June 1983 Subject The topic of the resource Oral history interviews Description An account of the resource Oral history interview of Joaquin M. Holloway, Sr. at Mobile Public Library Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mobile Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Growing Up in Mobile : Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949, Interviews Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource DeJuan Kidd Relation A related resource Descriptions of Oral History Interview Tapes Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 pdf jpeg Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-Up-in-Mobile-Joaquin M. Holloway, Sr. Interview-1983 De Juan Kidd Emerson High School Emily Nichols Fisher's Alley Great Depression Harrison Holloway Juaquin N. Holloway Sr. Lalie Felis Mobile https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/8974a3829b376272b20cfbb796b08d60.mp3 cdbcdec8248de6b95f3d66271f7a2afb https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/ebf7939e98d5bf369729615f6b9dfa9d.pdf 73c1b864ca6af0e8111cf3adbef60a88 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Reeve Carlson Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Mary Francis Plummer Location The location of the interview The Haunted Bookshop in Mobile, AL Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Cassette tape Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 19 min. 39 sec. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound R.C. : Today is June 21st, 1983. This is Reeve Carlson. I'm interviewing Mary Francis Plummer at the Haunted Book Shop. This interview is part of the Growing Up in Mobile Oral History Project. Tommy Oberding is assisting with the interview today. We're going to be talking about Ms. Plummer's experiences growing up in Mobile during World War II. We'd like to thank you for talking to us today about your experiences during the time you were in Mobile. To begin, would you state for the records your full name and when you were born. M.F.P. : My full name if Mary Francis Young Plummer and I was born in October, 1913. R.C. : Who were your parents? M.F.P. : My mother was Frances Fuller Thompson, my father was James Madison Young, and they were in Henderson, North Carolina. R.C. : What were their occupations? M.F.P. : My father was a druggist and my mother kept house. R.C. : Did you have any brothers and sisters? M.F.P. : I had three brothers and one sister. My sister was older than I and my three brothers were younger than I. R.C. : When did you move to Mobile? M.F.P. : In September of 1940. R.C. : What was Mobile like when you moved here? M.F.P. : When I came, I knew only one person, he was the Episcopal minister at Christ Church, and I was going to be the Director of Religious Education at Christ Church. I knew most of the people in Mobile at that time soon after I was here for a week. But every time I would go to town I would see nobody I knew, and it was a strange feeling. R.C. : What are some of your memories of World War II? M.F.P. : Well, first of all, as I said, I knew practically mobody and then all of a sudden I knew everybody in town. I was given a map of the city and a list of parishioners, and told to call on the people, and I knew everybody, and I would go to the post office and I would see my friends, and I'd go through the park and I'd see my friends, and all of a sudden World War II came along and we were flooded with strangers. R.C. : Do you remember any changes during this time? M.F.P. : Loads of changes. You couldn't find a house to live in; you couldn't find food to eat; you couldn't find tired to put on your car; you couldn't find gasoline to ride around on. Everything was short, and Mobile just began to grow and grow and grow. R.C. : Did you know any of these newcomers who came during World War II? M.F.P. : I met quite a lot of them. Brookley was established and a couple of people from Brookley Field would come in the Haunted Book Shop. I might back up a little bit and say that at Christ Church my husband was a Boy Scout master over there and I married him, and I left my job as Director of Religious Education to help him with the Haunted Book Shop. And there I met a lot of strangers. R.C. : Did any of the newcomers move into your neighborhood at this time? M.F.P. : Well, our Book Shop was in the little building over on Conception Street with a driveway through it. Upstairs we rented rooms to people who came to work at the shipyard, so we saw lots of people. R.C. : Did people in your neighborhood rent rooms to newcomers? M.F.P. : Yes, they did. One night we went out, we were going to dinner with a stranger who was in Mobile, showing him the city, and we just walked out and left the door open to the Book Shop. When we came back we found a sailor in there selling books. He had taken over, the money was all in the cash register and everything was fine. He said he had a grand time running the Haunted Book Shop for us while we were out. Never saw him before. R.C. : How did people feel toward the newcomers? M.F.P. : I think there were mixed emotions. My husband and I, we used to enjoy meeting them and sometimes we would take them home for the weekend. I remember one of my prettiest china dishes, a boy from Australia was fixing us a Sunday dinner, and he sat this platter on the stove and it cracked. But, we used to take people out to ride and all the girls would go down to the USO Hall and entertain the soldiers and dance with them and feed them. All in all, we tried to make them welcome. R.C. : Were the fathers and mothers of any of your friends in the military or working at Brookley Field during this time? M.F.P. : No, I had a brother in the military service, but he was stationed in Germany. He never did get to Brookley Field. R.C. : Do you recall seeing a lot of servicement or military personnel during this period? M.F.P. : Yes, they were all over the streets of Mobile and the stores would stay open late at night, and you'd see them on Sunday. The town was just floating with military people. R.C. : Did you know anyone who worked in the shipyards or in other defense industries? M.F.P. : I did indeed. One of the girls that I lived with just before I was married (I had an apartment), she was a welder at the Mobile shipyard. Some people would think that she was just as pretty as she could be and she was doing a patriotic job, and other people would say "I don't think that women ought to be in the shipyard welding." R.C. : At this time were you working here at the Haunted Book Shop? M.F.P. : Yes, I was. R.C. : Do you remember people in Mobile volunteering for war work? M.F.P. : Yes, as a matter of fact, before I was married, when I was working at Christ Church, I used to work all day and then I would go down to the Scottish Rite Building, for the "Command Center" (we called it), and we would plot airplanes and where they were, and we'd work there every night from nine until twelve o'clock. F.M. : I have a question. Since you worked at Christ Church, do you feel that religious involvement is greater now or less now than it was when you first came to Mobile? M.F.P. : In my particular church I think it's less than it was. Caper Thadley (Capers Satterlee?) was a very civic-minded person and he had a nursery school upstairs for the mothers who were working during the war. The church parish house was always open to organizations that wanted to meet there, entertain the soldiers, or have dinners. The people from the auxiliary were made aware of the men being in town and were really working for them. R.C. : Do you remember any of the rationing during World War II? M.F.P. : I surely do. You couldn't get tired and you couldn't get gasoline. My husband had tuberculosis, and right after we were married he went to get some insurance and they told him his other lung had gone bad on him. My minister advised us to go back to the doctor who had done the surgery on him to begin with, which was in Tennessee, and I can remember crying all night long because I didn't have enough gasoline to go and I couldn't get enough gasoline to go back to Tennessee. Finally, I guess my heart took over, and people loaned me stamps, which, of course, was strictly against the rules, you didn't borrow ration stamps, but I did and we went to Tennessee to see the doctor. R.C. : What was Mardi Gras like? M.F.P. : There was no Mardi Gras during the war. It was completely stopped. R.C. : Do you recall any unusual or outstanding persons in Mobile? M.F.P. : I don't know that you would call them unusual, it seemed rather queer to me though. I remember distinctly a man coming in one day to buy some Pocket books, and while I was selling him Pocket books he was telling me about wanting guns out of Mobile into the foreign countries. Another funny story was, a girl was working for us in the book shop and somebody came to my husband and said "Do you know this girl? She's a spy," and so my husband felt duty-bound to go over to the FBI and talk to them about the girl working there and tell them that she had been reported as a spy. It turned out the girl was working for the FBI. R.C. : Do you remember any other ways in which the war affected everyday life in Mobile? M.F.P. : Yes, everybody went to the seventh grade at Barton Academy, and of course every seventh grade child knew every other seventh grade child, and after the war the schools sprang up all over Mobile. Not only was there just one big Murphy High School or one bid seventh grade, there were many different schools. Now there were a lot of people that didn't even know each other any more. R.C. : What were some of the changes in the appearance of Mobile? M.F.P. : Well, every business place was busy, the LeClede Hotel was where I move d my shop from Conception Street to Government Street. It was a busy, buzzing street. The old courthouse was there, the Alabama Hardware and Sears Roebuck. Of course they tore down the Alabama Hardware, they tore down Sears Roebuck and moved it over on Royal Street. Then, in the sixties they built that Springdale Plaza and all the stores from downtown, Sears Roebuck and Hammels and Kaysers and Raphaels, and all of those stores moved out to Sprindale Plaza. And then of course they built Bel Air Mall right across the road from it, and downtown was almost a ghost town. F.M.. : Mrs. Plummer, why did you move your shop the first time? M.F.P. : Because the building we were in on Conception Street was leaking, and water and books don't mix very well. So we found out that Government Street, on account of where the Railway Express Company had been at Government and St. Emmanuel Street, was available, had enough space and it was a good location. F.M. : And how long were you there? M.F.P. : Twenty seven and a half years. F.M. : How did your bookstore get its name? M.F.P. : My husband and Adelaide Trigg, Adelaide Marsten Trigg, opened it in 1940, and about that time Christopher Morley was a very popular writer. He wrote his first book, Parnassus on Wheels, an old book-seller had a book shop in a covered wagon, and they traveled up and down the eastern seaboard selling books. They could produce the right book for the right person at this right time. When he married, he and his wife settled in Boston, and they ran the Haunted Book Shop and it was haunted by the ghosts of all great literature. They lived in the house and the books were right there; it's a good spy story because they had a wall in the Haunted Book Shop and a spay came in and left messages for other spies. Quite entertaining, you ought to read it sometime. We wrote him and asked him if we might name our shop after his story and he wrote back a real cute letter and said other shops had tried it and they'd all gone broke but it'd be brave to try. R.C. : Did Mobile look different or seem different after the war? M.F.P. : Very different. With the coming of the war there were so many people. When you;d drive through the Bankhead Tunnel they had built a school over there called Blakely School, and they had built houses all over there, people lived on Blakely Island. Of course, after the war they tore the houses down, and people all moved out on the western side of town, but there were houses all down Conception Street and people actually lived right downtown. Now of course people would come down in hats and gloves, and meet at the Battle House. R.C. : What kind of hats did the ladies wear? M.F.P. : Good, big, floppy hats with flowers on them, and gloves. R.C. : Were feathers on the hats popular at that time? M.F.P. : No, I think there were flowers more than feathers. R.C. : Did Mobile change during the war? M.F.P. : Changed very much. R.C. : What things changed and stayed the same? M.F.P. : To tell you the truth, I don't know that anything stayed the same. Goldstein's is still downtown, and the Haunted Book Shop is still downtown, and Gayfers, I think they're the only things that are still here that were here before. R.C. : Did you or your friends ever discuss the war? M.F.P. : Oh we would get together and talk about it, in fact, we still do get together and talk about going riding on Sunday afternoons and taking the soldiers and working at Interceptor Command and some of the things that used to happen down there. R.C. : Did you know any of Mobile's writers or artists? M.F.P. : I expect I know most of Mobile's writers. Caldwell Delaney has written a good many books, in fact most people give his book Remember Mobile, as a gift book to people who come to Mobile, move away, and they want a gift to take with them. But, he has written about ten different books. Evelyn Dahl wrote a book called Belle of Destiny, and Judy Rayford used to write books ( Judy died about a year ago), but he was known all over the United States. Eugene Walter has written books and he lives here now and writes for the Azalea City News. Mobile has always had a lot of writers; Erwin Craighead and Ernest Spinoloza, and Kathleen Johnston; of course, now they have Terri Cline and Roy Hoffman, Jay Higgenbotham; we have quite a lot of authors. F.M. : Did you know ......? M.F.P. : Yes, indeed I did. In fact, my husband offered to build a building for him to store his papers in if he would just let Mobile have them, he never would agree to let Mobile have them. I'll tell you another story about him: he sold the Gutenberg bible in New York, which was not a Gutenburg bible, and it sort of ruined the name of mobile booksellers for a while. R.C. : Are there other things from the war you might want to add? M.F.P. : Right this minute I can't think of anything except the only thing we're sure of is change. F.M. : The boys here were fascinated with the blackouts and that sort of thing. Why don't you add one or two things about air raid drills and so on. M.F.P. : All the cars had black paint over the top half of the lights. Of course, you would have to turn your lights out at certain times. You could hear a whistle going off and you'd run for shelter. It was quite exciting. R.C. : Was there were an air raid? M.F.P. : Not an actual air raid, just practices/ R.C. : How many air raid drills were there in a day? M.F.P. : There would only be one in a day, in fact they would only have on in maybe a month. But sometimes, they would have an air raid and the sirens would go off and you'd have to lock up your business and go out of town. They had evacuation routes, and they'd tell you which streets you could go out and where you were to meet. Then you would leave. R.C. : What would happen if you were in an airplane at the time when the siren went off? M.F.P. : I never had that experience, I don't know. Of course, we were all supposed to keep a certain amount of food on hand in case anything happened, to be ready. R.C. : Were you ever caught in a car when an air raid siren went off? M.F.P. : No, I was usually in the book shop. I did have to close the book shop and get in the car and go to the edge of town. F.M. : Where was the edge of town? M.F.P. : I think I went to Spring Hill, I'm not sure. R.C. : You've been very kind to give us your time and to share with us your memories of World War II. Listening to you will add to our record of this time. Thank you very much. M.F.P. : Thank you for coming, it was a joy. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mary Francis Plummer Interview - 21 June 1983 Subject The topic of the resource Oral history interviews Description An account of the resource Oral history interview of Mary Francis Plummer at the Haunted Bookshop Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mobile Public Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Growing Up in Mobile : Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949, Interviews Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tommy Oberding Frank McClowsky Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-Up-in-Mobile-Mary Francis Plummer Interview-1983 Relation A related resource Descriptions of Oral History Interview Tapes Brookley Field Caldwell Delaney Christ Church Erwin Craighead Frank McCloskey Haunted Bookshop Jay Higginbotham Mary Francis Plummer Mobile rationing Reeve Carlson Tommy Oberding World War II https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/15c2182dace38f13d54574392ba7e7a3.jpg d66968a36c893813d966f1614e9a0d59 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/13ff611b9e262c9a44090afdecea587c.jpg 983c241628395abe3a219ee2c426545d https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/33151ddcef0d2c8b1849bd0f5d88f892.jpg 55a3e9452fc63f42a3802da2ba22e7c4 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/e9ed94c5db6e1a9acaab8b8c8b837545.jpg 9f426a3586292bd34ea90c90b8267eed https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/4237d0e0d26e20c8b9fe2660a1d9abca.jpg ea1f6799f4e023a88a0d44005ba7b29e https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/aed8dd876d1a0474f018906a502818c6.jpg a3a42eb926626d59e1d24ecbe9535fa6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include illustrations, paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tissington House Drawings, 1901 - Rebecca Harrison Project Subject The topic of the resource Tissington House architecture Description An account of the resource Drawings by Rebecca Harrison of the Tissington House, built 1901 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rebecca Harrison Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Rebecca Harrison Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Relation A related resource Architectural Study - Rebecca Harrison Project, with Evaluation - 1983 Vickers House Drawings, 1935 - Rebecca Harrison Project Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-Up-in-Mobile-Tissington House Drawings-1983 1901 architecture drawing Mobile Rebecca Harrison Tissington House https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/7a663817575aef439f8568ca9c273cb3.jpg b5924366981dcc8f94b8bf45e3677891 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/22ee06b323d0c37929ec70ba62518c2c.jpg 08aa15b2f12f1f969c321b8753484f7b https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/93256116b8b7836fb3594961a4265106.jpg df27711ca0599f19eeb3c86690603f47 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/e3c425f569553606719778f422329c74.jpg 5c8cb59f0d3d018cb362af56fdb239ea https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/9b73bf69774399ad98e739df1602d0db.jpg 2db343b50157c7d3f714023b5cdde4a7 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/5e22d0a63762c8f371978b6315998996.jpg 32cab5be08d10b62e33907d7b5f88a4b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include illustrations, paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Vickers House Drawings, 1935 - Rebecca Harrison Project Subject The topic of the resource Vickers House architecture Description An account of the resource Drawings by Rebecca Harrison of the Vickers House, built 1935-1936 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rebecca Harrison Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Rebecca Harrison Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Relation A related resource Architectural Study - Rebecca Harrison Project, with Evaluation - 1983 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource jpeg Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-Up-in-Mobile-Vickers House Drawings-1983 1935 architecture drawing Mobile Rebecca Harrison Vickers House https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/424e93e4586a87026a2efb2852837292.pdf a46c52baf34f6310a29c1864246a6c6e https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/557909dc6c680b6b77d18a56d132cc31.pdf 309d0680fcc97b0e95a6eec7a020f871 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Paper Text Any textual data included in the document "Growing Up in Mobile, Depression and War Time" Architectural Study Project: Compare and contrast wealthy upper-class housing of the 1930s with wealthy upper-class housing at the turn of the century. The Vickers House: built 1935-36, located at 29 Hillwood Road in Spring Hill, west of I-65. A modest two-story house, side-hall plan. Small one-bay porch front entrance, with brick stoop and steps and brick walkway leading up to pebbled half-circle driveway. A closed, private-looking house, with its screened-in porch in the southwest corner, (bottom floor) and, originally, a covered back porch off the kitchen (now walled-in and the kitchen expanded). Set in the middle of a huge lot, with a pebbled driveway offering two entrances to the front of the house, which is on a corner lot surrounded on the two street-sides by a white picket fence. Trees hide the house almost entirely from view from the road. Children played in the yard, the ditch behind the lot, the neighbors' yards, or the woods (where houses now stand). This meant that the children stuck close to home, a safer environment than if they had lived downtown and played in the streets. Ten-inch cypress boards side the exterior, red brick makes up the front stoop and steps, walkway, and stairwell leading outside from the southwest screened-in porch. The materials for the house came mostly from other houses being torn down at this time (1935). These "second-hand" materials were less expensive, but of high quality. The simple, rectangular design of the house, its modest size (the Vickers originally planned to add a wing on the north side eventually, but built a house over the Bay instead), and the second-hand materials used in its construction indicate the limitations set by the Depression, during which the general attitude, even among the wealthy, was one of caution and concern over the financial risk involved in the construction of a private home, especially since few people in the 1930s could afford to build, much less live in, a new house. Hillwood was a new area of Spring Hill when the Vickers built their house in 1935 (theirs was the first home built in the area, not including the three "model homes" in Hillwood built in the 1920s before the Depression, which temporarily ended further development of homes in the area). Hillwood is and was an obviously wealthy suburban street, in the same neighborhood as the "restricted" Mobile County Club. White families, with black servants, have always been the rule in Hillwood. The houses on Hillwood are nearly all different, having been built at different times and through different architects in the years since 1935. The interior of the house has hardwood floors and paneling (probably oak); a blue marble fireplace in the living room downstairs; indoor plumbing (two-and-a-half baths, 1 1/2 downstairs, one upstairs); a small kitchen with all modern convenience in the back of the house; electricity and a ceiling fan in the southwest screened-in porch; and a cellar-utility area for clothes-washer, servants' room. The house was probably heated through a combination of gas, electricity, and the fireplaces up- and downstairs. Fans and open windows cooled the house. Everything mentioned above in this paragraph was original to the house at the time it was built. The roof of the house is a moderately steep gable-style, practical for Mobile's rainy climate. Window arrangements are not practical - the kitchen has the fewest (and the smallest) windows, yet it is the hottest room in the house. The Vickers made sure that the other rooms in the house had enough strategically-placed windows to insure a "nice view of the yard"; in other words, the practical purpose of windows, i.e. to provide light and air-circulation, were not considered as important by the Vickers as the "nice view" the windows could provide. Many trees shade the yard, but these are not very close to the house, which would be very uncomfortable without air conditioning. The Vickers house has few details which would "date" it to the 1930s. Part of the reason for this is that the house was "made to order", its design reflecting the personal preferences of the Vickers when they built the house in 1935. Another reason it is difficult to "date" the house is that it was constructed of second-hand materials, from houses built years before 1935. For instance, the ten-inch wide cypress siding on the houses's exterior was more common in the 19th century than in the early twentieth century, during which time exterior siding was much narrower and consisted of non-organic shingles, asbestos, stucco, etc. (becomes typical of homes built in the inter-war period). However, several details of the Vickers house indicate that it was built in the Depression year. These details include the fact that the house is much less" street-oriented" than houses built in earlier periods when people would sit on their front porches and visit with their neighbors while the children played in the street. The Vickers house, with its large back yard, its private, screened-in porch, and its location on the lot (set back from the street and hidden from view by trees, the lot surrounded by a white picket fence as a symbol of "private property") is an example of the growing trend in the inter-war years towards privacy, when people more or less cut themselves off from their neighbors by moving inside their houses and into their back yards. The small one-bay porch/ stoop front entrance of the Vickers house is not as open and welcoming as the large front porches of Victorian houses built at the turn of the century or bungalows built in the 1920s. The Depression evidently caused a change in the general attitude towards money - people who had wealth in the 1930s were careful not to "show off" their wealth. The Vickers could have afforded to be much more extravagant in designing their house, but they kept it simple. The Vickers' rectangular-shaped "town house" has little or no decoration other than: dark green "false" shutters on windows at the front of the house; a wrought-iron handrail on the stairwell leading outside from the southwest screened-in porch; a sunburst window above the front door sill; a gas light/lamp at the end of the front brick walkway; a white picket fence around the street sides of the lot; and several flower beds and many different types of trees in the yard. Even inside the house everything is kept simple: wood paneling instead of wall paper; hardwood floors, with rugs in only a few rooms. The blue marble fireplace in the living room is perhaps the most decorative detail of the house. The Tissington House - built 1901, located at 1216 Government Street at Georgia Avenue, west of Broad Street but east of Ann Street, so it is extremely close to downtown and lies on the north side of Mobile's "main street" (Government). A very large house with an open, roomy front porch and second story balcony wrapping around the west side of the house from the front. Two-and-a-half stories, the Tissington house has numerous windows, balconies, dormers, and a large tower (turret). It was built on a central-hall plan. The house takes up most of the corner lot on which it was built. The front yard is somewhat larger than the backyard, and concrete steps lead from the front door/ porch to a wide concrete walkway, which empties onto a sidewalk surrounding the lot on its street sides (this sidewalk extends around the block and is typical of downtown Mobile, which has sidewalks in every area, residential and business). These sidewalks were important especially for the children of the Tissington house, since they lived on one of Mobile's busiest streets. The children probably played on the large porch or inside the house in bad weather, in the street or on the sidewalks otherwise. The Tissington house is so large it certainly offered the children enough room to play inside or to be alone if they wished. The house has five- to seven-inch clapboard exterior siding and the roof is shingled, with decorated fascia boards. The jigsaw and the spindle were among the advancements in technology of the nineteenth century, and both were used to create this typical Victorian house, with its spindle-wood balustrade and jigsaw railing on the front porch and second-story balcony, and the Victorian-turned columns and wooden handcarved decorations on the tower, dormer, and front-porch roof. The house also features stained glass windows. The size and design of the house indicate a type of extravagance in which the wealthy homebuilder of the turn-of-the-century could indulge, whereas the wealthy homebuilder in the Depression era was more inhibited and careful with his money. The Tissington house is one of several Victorian homes in the area of Georgia Avenue and Government Street. The families living in these houses were of the upper-middle/ wealthy class, and their racial background was white, their servants were probably black. One street over, north of the Georgia-Government area, is Caroline Avenue, which is lined with tiny low-income Victorian "shotgun" houses, also built near the turn-of-the-century, like the Tissington house. The Tissington has three parlors downstairs; a kitchen in the back of the house (with a marble sink); indoor plumbing; electricity for fans; probably gas for heating as well as the fireplaces (the fire-place in one of the parlors is dark brown marble); hardwood floors covered with narrow-cut carpets; oak paneling and large-patterned wallpaper on the walls. A house this large certainly required several servants to help with its upkeep and the owner's image. The Tissington is a pure Victorian house, like any other Victorian house built in California, Kansas, or Maine. It adapts to Mobile climate through its open spaces, high ceilings, steep-pitched roofs, and especially through its large porch and balconies. It has many windows, mostly placed wherever they would look best, some of them of stained/ leaded glass. This house might have been more comfortable without air-conditioning than would the Vickers house, which is smaller and not as well ventilated. Many details "date" the Tissington house to the turn-of-the-century, including: stained/ leaded glass in windows; narrow-cut carpet on the floors; Victorian-turned columns on the porch; wooden handcarved designs on the tower (turret) and dormers; the decorated balustrade around the porch and balconies (jigsaw design on the railing, spindled balusters); detailed molding around the windows; many different sizes and shapes of windows. The tower itself, in addition to cupolas and turrets, were also common to the Victorian style of architecture represented in the Tissington house's design and construction. The houses of the 1930s were built in the Depression era, a time when people either did not have money or were very careful wit hit. Therefore, the houses built at the turn-of-the-century, a time when most people had fewer financial problems, would be fancier than houses built thirty years later. The people living in the Tissington house in the early 1900s could probably walk to shops and schools because they lived in town. But at the time the Vickers house was built (1935), Spring Hill was a suburb, "out in the country", and the children had to ride bikes to school and the Vickers had to drive into town to work or shop. The Mobile Public Library Study Grant: Growing Up in Mobile, Depression and Wartime Evaluation of Rebecca's architectural project Project: To compare and contrast the wealthy upper class housing of 1930 with the wealthy upper class housing of the turn of the century. The two houses selected by Rebecca were well chosen to illustrate the contrast in architectural development of the two periods. They also demonstrated the changes in the suburban growth of their respective years. The drawings added much to the project. Not only were they well done but they brought out essential differences in the architectural elements. The written descriptions were detailed enough to bring out the purpose of the project, that of the effect of housing on a child growing up in those surroundings. It would have been helpful if Rebecca could have interviewed Mrs. Tissington as she did Mrs. Vickers and it was unfortunate that she could not go through the interior of the Tissington house to get an accurate picture of the plan, not because she did not try. From the social standpoint the conclusions drawn were well stated. From the architectural standpoint it might have been interesting to have added a comment on the difference in craftsmanship evidenced in the details of the building since that is the point brought out by the drawings. Both Rebecca and her advisor, Jennifer, did a good job with the subject selected and carried out within the allotted time. They took many trips to the buildings, the photography was excellent and the drawings show much talent on the part of Rebecca. Elizabeth B. Gould, architectural historian Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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Title A name given to the resource Architectural Study - Rebecca Harrison Project, with Evaluation - 1983 Subject The topic of the resource Architecture Description An account of the resource A comparison of a wealthy upper-class house of 1930 with a wealthy upper-class house of the turn of the century Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rebecca Harrison Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Rebecca Harrison Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Elizabeth Barrett Gould Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-Up-in-Mobile-Harrison Architectural Study-1983 1901 1930 architecture Elizabeth Barrett Gould Great Depression Hillwood Mobile Rebecca Harrison Spring Hill Tissington House Vickers House https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/ba5533dbe00bb23329e89364eb37a328.pdf eefff7fffb18fdb0aa22653a20c196f6 https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/2962a87075e01f633ce7e0cff502bfb7.pdf cf6d688c00cb11ccdda81f7551bc03cf https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/27dd7b851bd530e59e873ddcde11114c.pdf 263c1e9c9829f402706bc18ee3f2be80 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The following are excerpts from the diaries of some hypothetical persons who grew up in the Toulminville area during the 1830s and the 1930s and 1940s. The first two excerpts come from the diary of Bill Bates, a slave owned by the Bates family who lived in Toulminville between 1838 and 1839. The last four excerpts come from the diary of Bill Bates V, a descendant of the earlier Bill Bates. These four excerpts explore the life of a young black person during the 1930s and 1940s. Some of the situations and ideas in these excerpts may not be completely factual but they are based on factual information. The purpose of this is to give people an idea of what life was like during certain periods of time, particularly during the Depression and World War II. January 5, 1838 Today my family and I left Mobile with my master's family and came to our new home in the country . Our home is near a large creek (Three Mile Creek) and there is a lot of wide open space surrounding my master's house. The Bates home (1) is a large two story house with the first story made of brick and the second story made of wood with very high stairs leading to a porch hanging out from the second floor. The brick bottom story was built by my father and some other slave masons about a year ago. The ceiling of the bottom floor is very tall which makes the house seem even larger to me and there are two chimneys. One last thing about the house is the big open "galerie" across the back which allows the Bates family to come out and admire the beauty of their land. My house is in back of the master's house near the kitchen (2). It is nice but much smaller than the big house. As we came into this new community today I didn't see any schools but it wouldn't matter to me anyway since it's against the law for slaves to be educated. The only reason I can write is because the master's son, my white friend, taught me. My friend is taught by the mistress in the big house since there is no school. Although I didn't see any school, I did find out that there are other rich families in this area other than the Bates family (3). There are the Toulmin lands to the east, the Goldthwaite lands to the northwest and the Files family home on St. Stephens Road which runs north and west (Appendix II). I'd better go now because I have to collect wood for the master's fireplace and the kitchen stove. July 5, 1838 At this time of year the outside doors of the big house are left open so that any wind can flow into the hall of the house and the kitchen by way of the breeze-way which connects them. The rear "galerie" and second floor porch allow air to also cool the top floor. Each day I have to go to the creek and bring water back to the house for drinking, washing, and cooking. Later today I hope I will have time away from my work to take a swim in the creek. It's a lot of fun and it makes it easier to live in this heat. There is no church in this area (the first known church in Toulminville was built in 1846) (4) but that doesn't keep us from talking to God and tomorrow a group of us will get together to sing and pray. July 20, 1930 This morning my family moved into a small house in an area north of Mobile. My new address is 1760 Stone Street (Appendix III). From the outside the house looks long and narrow and has a small porch. It has four windows along each side of the house and there seems to be an extra room at the back of the house which has been added on since the house was built a few years ago. Although the house seems a little closed in because of its size, the porch with its beautiful column designs gives me a feeling of welcomeness (6). When I'm ar home I can play on the side of the house or in the backyard where there is a lot of room. This house we moves into today is smaller than the house we had been living in but we had to move into this house because my father lost his job and couldn't afford the other house. We do have electricity (7) in this house but we don't have running water because we couldn't afford it. Times are hard and it's too bad that many hard workers (laborers) like my father are the first to lose their jobs. December 3, 1936 This morning after waking up and getting dressed I walked to school with some friends. I had to walk down St. Stephens Road past Gorgas School (Appendix IV), a school for white children, past Finch Avenue all the way to Andrews Street where I go to class at Toulminville School (Appendix V), the school I've been going to since I came to Toulminville. Our church had a special gathering planned for today so after school I walked down St. Stephens Road pass Craft Highway to Greer Autry and Sons, a small grocery store, and then further down the street to Butler Sea Food Store where I picked up some things for the church picnic. About an hour after I got home my family was ready to go to the picnic. Before going to the church we drove to the Big S Station (2) on St. Stephens Road north of Craft Highway. There my father bought a couple of dollars worth of gas which had to last him for the whole week. Then we drove all the way back down the road until we for to St. Charles Avenue where we went to meet the other members of Ebenezer AME Church. Then the whole congregation drove down to St. Charles Avenue to Stone Street and then to Davis Avenue where we stopped for our picnic at Davis Avenue Playground. After the picnic my family and I went back to our house on Stone Street and brought an end to a very nice day. January 7, 1942 Today was the day that our family moved into our new house (Appendix VI). The new house is just across the street from our old house on Stone Street but it seems a little bigger than the old house and now we have more yard space. Our new address is 1711 Stone Street (7). We were able to move into the new house because now that my father has a job building ships to be used in the war, we can afford a nicer home. Also, as a result of the growing business and industry in the Mobile area many people have begun settling in Toulminville. Our new house seems bigger because the rooms are spread out more than those in the house we had before with one room right after another. Another nice thing is that now we have electricity as well as running water which we didn't have before (8). The house has a small porch, three windows, and a door in front. There are two windows on each side, and additional room in the back, and a chimney on one side. On the same lot there is another building which can be used for storing things or for extra rooms and between the two buildings is a lot of space to play. After we got most of our things moved in this morning it was time to do to church so the family piled into the car and we drove to Ebenezer AME Church on St. Charles Avenue (9). After church I decided to have a little fun by going to Davis Avenue Playground to play basketball. So I went home, changed, and walked all the way down Stone Street to Davis Avenue. There is another park that is easier to get to, but black people aren't allowed to go there. It's the Toulminville Recreation Center on St. Stephens Road and it's only a few blocks from my house. Anyway I had a good time at the park and now I think I'll call it a day. April 8, 1942 This morning I got up and walked down Stone Street to Davis Avenue where I go to Dunbar High School, a school only for blacks. After school was out for the day I walked up Stone Street, cut through St. Charles Avenue and went up St. Stephens Road until I reached Richardson's Grocery. This is where I work each day after school. Today I moved and unloaded boxes and packages and collection and scrap metal to be used for machinery in the war. After working late I went home and that about finishes up my day. Critique John Adams's Project Using an imaginary diary to give an account of growing up in Mobile between the two World Wars was an excellent idea. It would be appropriate to use the word "imaginary" in the introduction, or whatever other word John might like, in order to clarify in the reader's mind what is fact and what is used to portray the facts. The narrative is interesting, moves smoothly and is well written. There are some mechanical factors that need correction. Since John has presented his sources for the facts interwoven with the narrative, they should be footnoted, even though a real diary would not have done so. The footnotes at the end should be numbered and related to the same number within the body of the text. In that way there can be no doubt in the reader's mind of the authenticity of the material presented. John seems to have gone through his text and marked in red where he wanted the footnotes to go but they did not all relate to the proper references. There was also no distinction in the red corrections to indicate the difference between footnotes and the illustrations. I have tried to indicate in a green pen where these problems occur. Again John may feel that such details would not be included in a real diary, in which case he could give the information in the introduction, leaving the text of the diary without references. It would be a good idea to put a "c" before the dates of the 20th century houses since the precise dates were not established by chain of title of tax records. Thus c1936 indicates to the reader that the time of construction was about that date but might be off by a few years. I would not be surprised if the 1936 cottage were not earlier, based solely on the style. The word "galerie" is a French term used in architectural descriptions to mean a porch and is used in connection with styles that have evolved out of an earlier colonial tradition. It is thus distinguished from the gallery of a theater or art museum. It should be written in italics but if not then indicated by " ". If the map, indicated by the number VII, were intended to be a reference for the location of the Toulminville Recreational Center, mentioned on the next to last page of the Diary, it should have been marked on the map. There was a small 7 placed above this reference in the text but it was not differentiated as to whether it was a footnote or an illustration. These two reference sources should be indicated differently, the footnotes by a simply number above the reference and the illustrations by (ill.VII). In conclusion, the project was well developed. The research was ably explored for the time interval allowed. I hope that John will continue to study the area as no definitive information has ever been written about the neighborhood and it has a long and interesting history for which prime resources go back to the early 18th century French land grants. John Adams, a black male, aged fiftenn, chose to do an architectural study for his "Growing Up in Mobile - Depression & Wartime" project. He chose several houses in a Toulminville neighborhood in which he lives as the subject of his study. Until recent years, Toulminville has been a white neighborhood. John focused his report on black residents, nevertheless, which contributes somewhat to the interest of his report. Notes 1 Bates (Schusse) house description from Mobile Landmarks Inventory, Mobile City Planning Commission. 2 Description of kitchen with covered walkway to the Bates house and adjoining slave quarters from letter to Dot Webster, Webster Realty, to Nancy Holmes, Mobile Historic Development Commission. 3 Information concerning families or property near Bates home from letter from Mobile Historic Development Commission to Dot Webster, December 7, 1971; from Landmarks Survey, Mobile City Planning Commission, Chain of Title, November, 1974; and from "Toulminville One of Oldest Neighborhoods," News Herald, 21 September 1978, p.6. 4 First known church in Toulminville built 1848 . Ibid. 5 Address of house at 1760 Stone Street, Mobile City Directory, 1936. Description of house from photographs, appendix III. 6 Information concerning water service and electrical power from Alabama Power Company. 7 Locations of Gorgas School, Toulminville School, Autry Greer and Sons, Butler Seafoods, Big S Station, Ebenezer A.M.E. Church and Davis Avenue Playground from 1936 Mobile City Directory. 8 Address of house at 1711 Stone Street, Mobile City Directory, 1942. 9 Ibid., Alabama Power Company. 10 Locations of Ebenezer A.M.E. Church, Davis Avenue Playground, Toulminville Recreation Center, Dunbar High School and Richardson's Grocery from 1942 Mobile City Directory. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bill Bates & Bill Bates V Imaginary Diary Entries - John Adams Project, with Evaluation - 1983 Subject The topic of the resource Toulminville history Description An account of the resource Imaginary diary entries for hypothetical persons Bill Bates and his descendant, Bill Bates V, written by 15 year old John Adams as part of his Growing Up in Mobile: Depression & Wartime project, with critique by historian Elizabeth Barrett Gould Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Adams Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Growing Up in Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929 - 1949 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Elizabeth Barrett Gould Relation A related resource Appendix I - "The Bates House" - John Adams Project Appendix II - Toulminville one of oldest neighborhoods - John Adams Project Appendix III - 1914 Stone Street - John Adams Project Appendices IV & V - St. Stephens Rd. & Andrews St. - John Adams Project Appendix VI - 1865 Stone Street - John Adams Project Stone Street Map - John Adams Project - 1983 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-Up-in-Mobile-John Adams Diary Project-1983 1838 Andrews Street Bates House Bill Bates Bill Bates V Davis Avenue diary Ebenezer AME Church Elizabeth Barrett Gould Great Depression John Adams Mobile slavery St. Stephens Road Stone Street Toulminville World War II https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/6179ee8a8ff7311506af62a56bf3b711.pdf 34f2cfc17ee9dc6708a826ed71afd3b0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include illustrations, paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Stone Street Map - John Adams Project - 1983 Subject The topic of the resource Stone Street Description An account of the resource Map showing location of houses from Appendices I, III, and VI at 471 Schusse Lane, 1914 Stone St., and 1865 Stone St. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Adams Diary Project Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Relation A related resource Appendix I - "The Bates House" - John Adams Project Appendix III - 1914 Stone Street - John Adams Project Appendix VI - 1865 Stone Street - John Adams Project Bill Bates & Bill Bates V Imaginary Diary Entries - John Adams Project Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-up-in-Mobile-Stone Street Map-1983 Bates House John Adams Schusse Lane Stone Street https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/e535c257693c2320e705b6a579479f76.pdf 9acf09f7c378a479364abfe340a665a1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Appendix VI 1711 Stone Street (in 1942) Presently 1865 Stone Street Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photo and paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appendix VI - 1865 Stone Street - John Adams Project Subject The topic of the resource 1865 Stone Street Description An account of the resource Three photos of house located at 1711 Stone Street in 1942; 1865 Stone Street in 1983 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Adams Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Adams Diary Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-up-in-Mobile-1865 Stone Street-1983 Relation A related resource Stone Street Map - John Adams Project - 1983 Bill Bates & Bill Bates V Imaginary Diary Entries - John Adams Project John Adams Stone Street https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/files/original/0422028c6f4cfee975adccc6b0def9cd.pdf 9ee5b6d2fded25e640be8965884bc06f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Growing Up In Mobile: Depression & Wartime, 1929-1949 Subject The topic of the resource Mobile during the Depression and World War II Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Walton, MPL Youth Services, Erin Kellen, MPL Youth Services, & George Schroeter, MPL Local History & Genealogy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource USA Photographic Archives, Spring Hill College, Mobile Historic Development Commission Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpeg mp3 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This file may be freely used for educational uses as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission from this institution. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Appendix IV Existed in 1930's and 1940's but presently not in use. St. Stephens Road Appendix V Existed in 1930's and is presently still in use as Bessie C. Fonville School. Andrews Street Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photo and paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appendices IV & V - St. Stephens Rd. & Andrews St. - John Adams Project Subject The topic of the resource Bessie C. Fonville School Description An account of the resource Two photos: unused building on St. Stephens Rd. and Bessie C. Fonville School on St. Andrews St., in use in 1983 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Adams Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Adams Diary Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mobile Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Growing-up-in-Mobile-St. Stephens Rd. & Andrews St.-1983 Relation A related resource Bill Bates & Bill Bates V Imaginary Diary Entries - John Adams Project Andrews Street Bessie C. Fonville School John Adams St. Stephens Road