Lorna Gail Woods Interview Clip
Title
Lorna Gail Woods Interview Clip
Description
Lorna Woods talks about the sense of community and family she experienced growing up in Lewis' Quarters.
Creator
Lorna Gail Woods
National African American Archives & Museum
Museum of Mobile
Publisher
National African American Archives & Museum
Museum of Mobile
Date
March 23, 2000
Language
English
Type
Oral history interview
Identifier
VOHP-LornaWoods-Lewis-Quarters
Interviewer
Kern Jackson
Interviewee
Lorna Gail Autrey Woods
Location
Lewis' Quarters, Africatown
Transcription
Jackson: Tell me about the Lewis’ Quarters of your adult life.
Woods: Okay, since when I was very small, we were living in Green’s Alley but we always… before my grandmother built the house back in the ‘60s, she rebuilt a house and she moved… she got tired of Plateau and she wanted to move back home ‘cause she always wanted… she said she just didn’t feel right in Plateau ‘cause that wasn’t where she was born at. So her daughter and them… she working and her daughter and them put together, and they helped her rebuild that house that you see the green and white across the street. And she moved back in the house, and before she moved in that house we used to always come over here in Green… over here in Lewis’ Quarters on Friday and Saturday night ‘cause this was the place to be. This where all the happenings for this area used to be for African-Amercians that were living in this area.
My granddaddy and them had everything in Lewis’ Quarters you wanted. You could come over here and they raised all they farm animals. They made, well, a lot of people don’t like to say it, they sold drinks like whiskey and they had like parties. And they’d sit out and ate bar-be-cue and they, my uncle and them was great fishermen. They always could fish and hunt and they would cook right… You see this lil’ house here, Uncle Dana and them could go there and get that big pot and every ‘round Christmas and before Thanksgiving they would put up a hog or put up a cow or put up a goat or put the livestock that they was gon cook for the holidays and they would clean ‘em right out here. And like you say cracklins, we would, my uncle and them would clean that pig, they would put him up for about a month and clean him out. You called it cleaning him out and getting him ready to slaughter. So they would clean the pig and that night my grandmomma and them would have a big party, they would play my uncle and them would play the records. And we would have, they would make, get the big iron pot that we cooked, we washed in the pot, but when we wanted, when we skinned the pig, they would make the cracklins and you could hear the cracklins be cracklin. We couldn’t wait ‘cause the smell would go all over the Quarters. You know, we would have fresh cracklins. And my momma and them would come over here and they would have a good time and sit out and talk and quilt and sew. Now some nights my grandmomma and them they got together and made quilts together. And that’s how they talk time on. People didn’t have no TVs so that’s how they would entertain each other.
We would be in the lane playing at night. We could play long as we wanna ‘cause we’n have to worry about a car running over you or nobody coming and kidnapping you or anything because what we were over in Lewis’ Quarters. This where we felt we could be like family and we didn’t have to worry about anybody invading. Everybody that came to Lewis’ Quarters they were like family or friend. Just anybody couldn’t come in Lewis’ Quarter because everybody knew who everybody was, and they was very protective of they own. And like a stranger like a hobo would get off the train right out here, and he could walk over here. They’d check him out before he could come and sit around the fire. They always kept a fire right out here. When those hobos would ride the train down this track and they would come over here and they would give him a meal or give him a drank or give him some water and they would sit a while and they would go when the train come back through, they’d hop the train and keep on downtown or further north, if they was the train was going north or further south, if they were going south.
And so you look at Lewis’ Quarters, it was sectioned off and everybody had they own house. That’s the reason I said when we moved in Happy Hill for a while that wasn’t like home to us ‘cause we always, when we were growing everybody had their own house and they own yard. And they kept these yards up really well. It was a beautiful place, but by all the older people dying out now and the younger people that couldn’t find jobs like they wanted, so they moved away. So it’s been a uphill battle for us to try to bring it back to its glory, but we are slowly but surely we’re gonna bring it back. And so we as a child coming over here was just like heaven to me because you didn’t feel nothing but friendship. We loved each other, they, it was a lot of love over here. And if my auntie and them found out you needed something for school, you washed they windows, or you did some chore for them while you was over here on Saturday. If my momma had to go to work, we came over here and stayed until she got home from work. We would do chores for the family. And work in the garden and help feed the pigs and go get water for my uncle and them ‘cause these houses, if you look at this house here, it didn’t have running water, it didn’t have electricity, it didn’t have… and it had a outhouse, and so, you know, we didn’t have a lot of stuff we could be, like you say, even though this being a old, old house but my uncles stayed in it. It didn’t have the modern convenience. But they left this house up to show us from which we came because it was a meek and humble place. But as they families started getting better jobs and they started living better.
And most of these houses were built by family members. They’d work a while and they would buy bricks, they would stack bricks, they would go to old yards and get the bricks and stack ‘em up just like you see those bricks stacked up over there. My auntie, she, they worked on they own houses. They would like in the evenings when they husbands would come home from work, if the house needed wood, planks put on it, they added rooms onto they houses. And we also had a our a relative named Vic Days and the Days boys were construction workers; they could build. And my folks could build too, but they didn’t the expertise that they had. So, they built, a lot of these houses were built from the ground up by family members and friends not a construction company. But the ones that knew a little bit about construction work, and they put ‘em together. And they still standing after all these many years, they are still standing.
But this was the place to be. I heard a man, I heard a reverend on Sunday at a, the Africatown Family and Friends Day, his name is Rev. Hosey. Rev. Hosey don’t know me as per se, but he know my momma and daddy and I didn’t say anything because I wanted to hear what he had to say. And he related to Lewis’ Quarter. Everybody knew on Friday night from all the way up in Prichard to Hap.. Kelly Hill to Plateau, this was the place to be because nobody got out, you know, got out the way with you. My uncle and them kept you in check, they knew when you come over here, you had to, you couldn’t use foul language in front of the children and when we got through with our lil’ chores doing for them around dusk dark, we had to go over there in the Lane. We couldn’t come ‘round here where they would be dranking and partying. They would tell us, they gave us a lot of respect. And we, to the day, that respect lives on in me because it’s certain things I would not do, I don’t care who do it. I know I will not do it because my uncle and them said there’s a way to do anything. There’s a right way and there’s a wrong way. And we instilled that value in our children today. When they come over here and you saw them over here, they loved, we teach love in our family that this what this quarter was all about. It was built on love for each other.
Woods: Okay, since when I was very small, we were living in Green’s Alley but we always… before my grandmother built the house back in the ‘60s, she rebuilt a house and she moved… she got tired of Plateau and she wanted to move back home ‘cause she always wanted… she said she just didn’t feel right in Plateau ‘cause that wasn’t where she was born at. So her daughter and them… she working and her daughter and them put together, and they helped her rebuild that house that you see the green and white across the street. And she moved back in the house, and before she moved in that house we used to always come over here in Green… over here in Lewis’ Quarters on Friday and Saturday night ‘cause this was the place to be. This where all the happenings for this area used to be for African-Amercians that were living in this area.
My granddaddy and them had everything in Lewis’ Quarters you wanted. You could come over here and they raised all they farm animals. They made, well, a lot of people don’t like to say it, they sold drinks like whiskey and they had like parties. And they’d sit out and ate bar-be-cue and they, my uncle and them was great fishermen. They always could fish and hunt and they would cook right… You see this lil’ house here, Uncle Dana and them could go there and get that big pot and every ‘round Christmas and before Thanksgiving they would put up a hog or put up a cow or put up a goat or put the livestock that they was gon cook for the holidays and they would clean ‘em right out here. And like you say cracklins, we would, my uncle and them would clean that pig, they would put him up for about a month and clean him out. You called it cleaning him out and getting him ready to slaughter. So they would clean the pig and that night my grandmomma and them would have a big party, they would play my uncle and them would play the records. And we would have, they would make, get the big iron pot that we cooked, we washed in the pot, but when we wanted, when we skinned the pig, they would make the cracklins and you could hear the cracklins be cracklin. We couldn’t wait ‘cause the smell would go all over the Quarters. You know, we would have fresh cracklins. And my momma and them would come over here and they would have a good time and sit out and talk and quilt and sew. Now some nights my grandmomma and them they got together and made quilts together. And that’s how they talk time on. People didn’t have no TVs so that’s how they would entertain each other.
We would be in the lane playing at night. We could play long as we wanna ‘cause we’n have to worry about a car running over you or nobody coming and kidnapping you or anything because what we were over in Lewis’ Quarters. This where we felt we could be like family and we didn’t have to worry about anybody invading. Everybody that came to Lewis’ Quarters they were like family or friend. Just anybody couldn’t come in Lewis’ Quarter because everybody knew who everybody was, and they was very protective of they own. And like a stranger like a hobo would get off the train right out here, and he could walk over here. They’d check him out before he could come and sit around the fire. They always kept a fire right out here. When those hobos would ride the train down this track and they would come over here and they would give him a meal or give him a drank or give him some water and they would sit a while and they would go when the train come back through, they’d hop the train and keep on downtown or further north, if they was the train was going north or further south, if they were going south.
And so you look at Lewis’ Quarters, it was sectioned off and everybody had they own house. That’s the reason I said when we moved in Happy Hill for a while that wasn’t like home to us ‘cause we always, when we were growing everybody had their own house and they own yard. And they kept these yards up really well. It was a beautiful place, but by all the older people dying out now and the younger people that couldn’t find jobs like they wanted, so they moved away. So it’s been a uphill battle for us to try to bring it back to its glory, but we are slowly but surely we’re gonna bring it back. And so we as a child coming over here was just like heaven to me because you didn’t feel nothing but friendship. We loved each other, they, it was a lot of love over here. And if my auntie and them found out you needed something for school, you washed they windows, or you did some chore for them while you was over here on Saturday. If my momma had to go to work, we came over here and stayed until she got home from work. We would do chores for the family. And work in the garden and help feed the pigs and go get water for my uncle and them ‘cause these houses, if you look at this house here, it didn’t have running water, it didn’t have electricity, it didn’t have… and it had a outhouse, and so, you know, we didn’t have a lot of stuff we could be, like you say, even though this being a old, old house but my uncles stayed in it. It didn’t have the modern convenience. But they left this house up to show us from which we came because it was a meek and humble place. But as they families started getting better jobs and they started living better.
And most of these houses were built by family members. They’d work a while and they would buy bricks, they would stack bricks, they would go to old yards and get the bricks and stack ‘em up just like you see those bricks stacked up over there. My auntie, she, they worked on they own houses. They would like in the evenings when they husbands would come home from work, if the house needed wood, planks put on it, they added rooms onto they houses. And we also had a our a relative named Vic Days and the Days boys were construction workers; they could build. And my folks could build too, but they didn’t the expertise that they had. So, they built, a lot of these houses were built from the ground up by family members and friends not a construction company. But the ones that knew a little bit about construction work, and they put ‘em together. And they still standing after all these many years, they are still standing.
But this was the place to be. I heard a man, I heard a reverend on Sunday at a, the Africatown Family and Friends Day, his name is Rev. Hosey. Rev. Hosey don’t know me as per se, but he know my momma and daddy and I didn’t say anything because I wanted to hear what he had to say. And he related to Lewis’ Quarter. Everybody knew on Friday night from all the way up in Prichard to Hap.. Kelly Hill to Plateau, this was the place to be because nobody got out, you know, got out the way with you. My uncle and them kept you in check, they knew when you come over here, you had to, you couldn’t use foul language in front of the children and when we got through with our lil’ chores doing for them around dusk dark, we had to go over there in the Lane. We couldn’t come ‘round here where they would be dranking and partying. They would tell us, they gave us a lot of respect. And we, to the day, that respect lives on in me because it’s certain things I would not do, I don’t care who do it. I know I will not do it because my uncle and them said there’s a way to do anything. There’s a right way and there’s a wrong way. And we instilled that value in our children today. When they come over here and you saw them over here, they loved, we teach love in our family that this what this quarter was all about. It was built on love for each other.
Original Format
VHS
Duration
7 min 52 sec
Files
Citation
Lorna Gail Woods, National African American Archives & Museum, and Museum of Mobile, “Lorna Gail Woods Interview Clip,” Mobile Public Library Digital Collections, accessed April 23, 2024, https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/items/show/2740.