Allen, Evelyn Jones (1911-2007) |
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Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
|
Interviewee: |
Evelyn Jones Allen (1911-2007) |
| Interviewer: | Louise Ash |
| Date of interview: |
1995 November 3 |
| Length of interview: | 47 min |
| Transcribed by: | Patty Perison, Worcester County Library |
| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
African Americans—History
Restaurants—21st century
Worcester County (Md.)—African Americans
Worcester County (Md.)—Education
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Worcester County (Md.)—Women's History
Corporate Names:
Evelyn’s Restaurants
Village Inn
Location Terms:
Ocean City (Md.)
Pocomoke City (Md.)
Snow Hill (Md.)
Interview Begin
LOUISE: I should begin by asking your full name.
EVELYN: Evelyn Jones Allen
LOUISE: And you were born what day? Do you remember?
EVELYN: I don’t remember what year it was. I was born December 30th.
LOUISE: December 30 1911. What are your parents’ names?
EVELYN: My mother was named Henrietta Martin and my father Eben Truitt.
LOUISE: Were they from Snow Hill?
EVELYN: My father was from Snow Hill. My mother was from let’s just say Snow Hill.
LOUISE: Do you remember mostly growing up here in Snow Hill?
EVELYN: Yes, I was born in Snow Hill.
LOUISE: Do you have brothers and sisters?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: Can you tell us their names?
EVELYN: Yes but both my brothers are deceased.
LOUISE: And their names were?
EVELYN:Frank (Frances) Truitt and Granville Truitt
LOUISE: And how long ago did they die? Just roughly if you don’t remember.
EVELYN: Frank died - it’s been a couple of years I think and my other brother was killed in the Viet Nam War.
LOUISE: How old would he have been now if he were still alive? Would he have been much younger than you?
EVELYN: Yes, much younger. You see where the second brother comes in my father was married twice. And my first brother and I were by my mother and my second brother was by the second wife. Get it?
LOUISE: Sort of. So one brother was from one marriage and the other brother you are talking about was from the other marriage.
EVELYN: Yes my father’s. Should I go on with the one brother?
LOUISE: I forgot what the question was? (laughing)
So you named two brothers who are deceased and then two other brothers?
EVELYN: No just the two brothers and both are deceased.
LOUISE: And no sisters?
EVELYN: And I have one sister
LOUISE: And her name?
EVELYN: Alice Truitt
LOUISE: Is she still living?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: Does she live in Snow Hill?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: And how old is she roughly? Is she a baby sister?
EVELYN: She was from my father’s second marriage. She retired from Social Services. How old do you have to be to retire?
LOUISE: Usually you have to be 62 or 65
EVELYN: I’d said she is 64
LOUISE: Give her the benefit of the doubt.
Now how about children? How many children do you have and their names.
EVELYN: I have seven. Two are deceased.
LOUISE: And their names?
EVELYN: My oldest son is named James Junior. One is named George Jones.
LOUISE: And you have five living and their names are?
(Unclear conversation)
EVELYN: Ernestine Bailey, Betty Miles, Clairabelle, Tommy Jones, Calvin Allen Sr.
I was married twice.
LOUISE: I figured.
EVELYN: My first children were Jones and my second were Allen.
Now I have to name them: Ernestine, Betty, Tommy, Clairabelle and Calvin
LOUISE: Do they live in Snow Hill or all over?
EVELYN: They live in Princess Anne
LOUISE: Well Ernestine lives here right?
Is there anything more you would like to say about your family?
EVELYN: No not particularly. What do you mean?
LOUISE: Ok let’s go on then. Let’s start with Evelyn’s
EVELYN: Like I said if I had a questionnaire, I could take it home and be more accurate.
LOUISE: You mean as far as names and dates?
EVELYN: Names and dates
LOUISE: Well let me see if I can find you something that you can take that is not as lengthy as this one. I think this one is complicated. Let’s start with Evelyn’s especially because one of staff members here was so curious in where exactly the restaurant was located before.
EVELYN: On the corner. When they built this library they done away with this whole block from this corner to this corner. Right across the street where the Evelyn building was there was a fertilizer office. The fertilizer company was on the river. Then you come on up. The building belonged to the Donaldson. There was a barber shop.
LOUISE: A bar or saloon
EVELYN: Where you can buy beer-who has that?
LOUISE: A packaged goods store. Where you just come in? It wasn’t a bar?
EVELYN: No but it used to be a barber shop.
LOUISE: Do you remember who had it, who had the barbershop?
EVELYN: Several people had it. But I don’t know who the last person was. All of them died. But that was what was in this block. That was a hotel. There had been a hotel. Called Ca--
LOUISE: Calvert?
EVELYN: It was built the same year. They moved the stuff upstairs. I don’t know. I can’t think of that anymore.
LOUISE: That’s ok whatever you remember.
EVELYN: The restaurant had the pool room. In that corner.
LOUISE: Was that a pool room then? Has it been a pool room for a long time? I haven’t been in that room as long as I have worked here.
EVELYN: I have never been in there either. I live across from there.
LOUISE: Maybe someday I will have to get up my courage and knock on the door. I just want to see what is in here.
EVELYN: I don’t think you want to see what’s in there (laughing).
LOUISE: How did you come to go into business on your own? Oh wait I read in one of the newspaper articles or Maryland magazine article you started working in Ocean City when you were very young. How did you get over there?
EVELYN: You just stayed there. You had a room where you worked. The hotels were upstairs and underneath were rooms for the employed.
LOUISE: And how old were you when you did that?
EVELYN: Now this is when I have to go back. I can’t think of all those things. Half the things I forgotten, to tell you the truth. Half the things I want to forget.
LOUISE: Well I know that feeling too. Were you a teenager?
EVELYN: No I was married. If you give me a questionnaire of all the things you want from me I can go back and check it all out. I know what it is but it just won’t come right now. Then in a while it come to me.
LOUISE: I’m like that too. You put too much up in your mind to remember.
EVELYN: You put too much in there something goes.
LOUISE: And dates are not that important – I’m thinking more in terms of were you a young girl or teenager…
EVELYN: Ocean City paid more, I was working for a private family. I worked for Cole(?) Summers I was working with another lady. I was working with Caroline Artist(?) You wouldn’t know them. They lived in Lamar’s Requirement house(?). They had the whole place to themselves- first, second and third floor. They didn’t even use the third floor that’s where they lived when they were growing up. All her family died. It was just her and Mary.
I worked in Snow Hill for 10-15 cents an hour. And I often wondered what did I do with it? I fed my children. And it was all gone.
LOUISE: Well inflation makes everything worthless.
EVELYN: Whenever you go to Ocean City you get 20 dollars a week.
LOUISE: Whoa. That’s a big increase. Did you have to pay to stay there?
EVELYN: No as I said underneath all those hotels. Mayflower where I worked.
And the George Washington. Remember the George Washington?
LOUISE: I have heard of it.
EVELYN: I was working at the Commander. When I was working there that was the last the hotel on the beach.
LOUISE: Of the old style?
EVELYN: Of the old hotels. The last one- The Commander. And now it’s been so long.
LOUISE: It’s really built up over there. When was the last time you were in Ocean city?
EVELYN: I don’t know when I been to Ocean City. But I know it’s built up. I have a key to Ocean City. The Commissioners presented me a key to ocean city on a locket.
LOUISE: That’s great. A big key too I’m sure.
EVELYN: I’ll tell you what –it would work much better and I could give you better information if you give me something to write. This isn’t a rush is it?
LOUISE: It is a bit of a rush to the extent they would like to have the info for the chamber dinner for you so they can roast you thoroughly. That’s why I wanted to get you to tell some good secrets, some dirt.
LOUISE: When did you learn to cook?
EVELYN: I learned in Carol --- kitchen.
LOUISE: From watching her?
EVELYN: She had a lady work for her. You don’t know – are you from here?
LOUISE: I’m not from here originally. From Washington, DC
EVELYN: She had a lady worked for her- Jordana ---Ruby Waters mother
She had a big cookbook with everything in it. She had recipes for everything she wanted. And that’s how I learned how to fixed what she wanted. You know things she liked. She would have a souffle. I wouldn’t know how to make one now. But it’s something you bake in warm water and it puffs up.
LOUISE: They are supposed to be very hard to make
EVELYN: They are. Then She would have popovers. I wouldn’t know how to make them now but she had a recipe for everything. You would bake them -crusty on the outside and hollow in the middle. Ever have one of those?
LOUISE: I’ve eaten them but I don’t know how to make them.
EVELYN: I learned to cook while I was there. I never had roasted a turkey till I went there. We didn’t have turkeys before. We had chickens. You would raise geese and ducks.
LOUISE: How about Thanksgiving? You didn’t have a one then?
EVELYN: You don’t know how back you are going? You are going back 75 years or so now. You know what I’m saying.
LOUISE: Let’s get some perspective. Where did you grow up in Snow Hill? What street?
EVELYN: Well I was born in Snow Hill. My grandfather you know where Fulton’s farm is?
LOUISE: Going to Salisbury. Carmy?
EVELYN: (unclear)That’s where my grandfather lived. And that’s where I was born.
Later on Cedartown Rd.
LOUISE: So you didn’t live in Snow Hill. Sort of more on a farm.
EVELYN: Then my mother and father separated and that’s when I went to live with my aunt. I lived in Pocomoke. I was raised and went to school in Pocomoke.
LOUISE: What school did you go to? Do you remember?
EVELYN: It was the old school right as you go in Pocomoke. It was torn down.
LOUISE: It was right as you go in to Pocomoke?
EVELYN: Yes turn at the light. Next big corner.
LOUISE: Are you talking about the light where Roses use to be?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: Isn’t that Old Virginia Road?
EVELYN: You know where you come into Rose’s? and the road goes that way. It was right down from that road.
LOUISE: And that is where the school was and you lived in Pocomoke City then?
EVELYN: No we lived over the river then by Old Johnson’s meat place.
LOUISE: Was that off 13?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: Is there anything there now?
EVELYN: No we lived so far back; Do I have to go back there?
LOUISE: Let’s go on with the cooking
When did you get your own place, your own restaurant? What was it first called?
EVELYN: I think the first ones who had were Mr. Bill and Miss Bula Davis in Snow Hill. They were the first ones there. And then someone else had it. It was moved there from Public Landing. Public Landing was washed out one time. It was moved there after the big flood.
LOUISE: in ’33?
EVELYN: Who remembers?
LOUISE: I read about it, they said a lot of things were destroyed in the hurricane.
EVELYN: That’s where the lions club came from. A lot of people bought those old buildings after the flood, when the water went down and moved them up to Snow Hill. They bought a lot of houses from down there. A whole row of houses, fixed them up. You know they had a lot of money.
The lions club used to be the Paddle Club in Public Landing
And this building was moved from down there to up here-the one I had the restaurant in-Townsend
LOUISE: How did it come that you opened it? Did you have save your money, buy into it, take it over?
EVELYN: Well back in those days there wasn’t much money to be saved. It seems to me that I borrowed some money- $500 from Bill and Marion Shields
LOUISE: They acted as cosigners? And you had to pay it back over some period of time?
EVELYN: Yay
LOUISE: Shows you were a real go-getter. Were you married at that time?
EVELYN: No
LOUISE: So you were a pioneering restauranteur
What did it look like inside your restaurant? The first one that was here?
EVELYN: It had booths.
LOUISE: What did you cook?
EVELYN: Chicken, pigs’ feet, chitterlings. Chicken has always been my main dish.
LOUISE: Well that’s what you are famous for. How do you cook your chicken? Can you tell? Is it a secret?
EVELYN: Not exactly. It doesn’t have any portions. It’s just something you do. I’m gonna tell you how I do it. You cut up wash the chicken sprinkle a little salt over it, and then you put a few drops of milk, not much, on it and sprinkle some paprika over it and put some flour over it and take your hands and mix it up together so its coated well
LOUISE: Just regular flour?
EVELYN: You have to know how much. Flour mixed through so when you picked it up its coated. You almost have to show you.
LOUISE: Its by experience. Years of experience probably makes it better. Everyone seems to really love your fried chicken and chicken salad, peas and dumplings.
How many people could you feed at one time?
EVELYN: I think I could 2-25 at that time
LOUISE: Was your clientele white or black?
EVELYN: My clientele was black.
LOUISE: At that time?
EVELYN: At the time. I had white orders but none sat in because it was a different environment there. The first national bank used to get dinners every Friday. They would call. I would fix them and send them up there. They got dinner on Friday for a long time.
LOUISE: This was before desegregation then?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: Were there any white restaurants?
EVELYN: Yes but they didn’t sell the type of food I sold.
LOUISE: Did you make cornbread?
EVELYN: Not too much
LOUISE: What kind of vegetables did you serve with the chicken?
EVELYN: Potato salad and string beans.
LOUISE: I’m getting hungry just talking about it.
EVELYN: You would have different potato salad. I mean everybody’s was different.
Margaret cook for me. She learned how to make chicken and potato salad as good as I could.
LOUISE: So she could help out and cook on her own and not worry about it.
EVELYN: Ernestine
LOUISE: Not any of the boys?
EVELYN: No, they weren’t around then. My two older boys in Baltimore.
LOUISE: How long were you at this location here on this block across from the pool room? Was it called Evelyn’s then or what was it called?
EVELYN: I can’t remember
LOUISE: Can you picture a sign? Well you never really had a sign here either?
Mr. Thomas- Edward Thomas, the lawyer, his wife named it
I don’t know if it had a name.
How long were you there roughly?
EVELYN: 10-12 years
LOUISE: Was it until the library was built, in 1975-that’s the date on our cornerstone.
EVELYN: 1975
LOUISE: so that means in 1974 probably they decided to tear this block down
EVELYN: I moved before- in 1970
LOUISE: that would be 25 years ago
EVELYN: That’s when I went there
LOUISE: What made you decide to move?
EVELYN: Because that place became available. And they asked me to move where they could come and sit down and eat.
LOUISE: a different environment
EVELYN: this place is a different environment
LOUISE: So that was nice. They wanted a place where they could come and eat.
EVELYN: When that place became available they got right on me to move over there. And the place was equipped and everything.
LOUISE: What had been there before- another restaurant?
EVELYN: Yes. That used to be a drug store years ago. Mr. Mastiff(?) had it, before him Mr. Mears there then Mastiff went behind him.
LOUISE: What hours were you open at the library location? Were you open 7 days a week, 5 days a week?
EVELYN: I never was opened 7 days a week.
LOUISE: Always off on Sundays, closed on Sundays?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: Do you remember certain times of the year being busier as far as the restaurant business?
EVELYN: Just had regulars. Now it got busier in the summers because we had a lot of migrant workers. There are more businesses now then used to be in Snow Hill.
LOUISE: Not from the stories I used to hear. They used to be crowded on the street. They would be elbow to elbow in the streets. Do you remember that?
EVELYN: Hm mmm
LOUISE: Where did the people come from – the surrounding farms?
EVELYN: (inaudible)
LOUISE: How late were you open at night?
EVELYN: I never stayed open late at night. Around there I used to stay open till around 7.
LOUISE: When you first moved over to Green St….
EVELYN: I had beer.
LOUISE: Really? When did you stop having the beer?
EVELYN: I don’t know. Till it wasn’t profitable. Then it didn’t work too well. People didn’t want to come in and eat dinner and have someone over there drinking beer.
LOUISE: It wasn’t big enough you could have a separate bar area?
EVELYN: No. It didn’t mean that much. Beer got so it wasn’t profitable to me. So that’s when I stop.
LOUISE: When you moved to Green St. so the white people could come to the restaurant, did you have a lot of customers like the people from the court house and county offices?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: Can you remember any of those people, any special customers, people that you liked a lot? Anybody unusual?
EVELYN: Well see I didn’t work out front that much.
LOUISE: You were in the back
EVELYN: Yes I was in the back
LOUISE: Did you have to do any catering? Did you have certain customers that you would cater to?
EVELYN: Yea. Half the stuff I’ve forgotten
LOUISE: Well maybe this will jog your memory and you will go home and remember. That’s what I always do.
EVELYN: If you had a questionnaire I could take home.
LOUISE: How far did you go in school?
EVELYN: I quit in seventh grade
LOUISE: That was all you were allowed to back then, right? Unless you went away to Hampton Institute or Princess Anne.
Did you start school in October? I know back then school year was shorter for blacks.
EVELYN: I don’t even know. I don’t remember. I forget some things. Some people remember forever but I forget. Sometimes I meet somebody that I hadn’t seen for years and they sit there and talk to me and I’ve forgotten them, you know?
LOUISE: Well you see a lot of people too probably
EVELYN: Yea. I’ve completely forgotten them. Then they bring up things and try to make you go back where you can remember.
LOUISE: What about church, what church did you always belong to?
EVELYN: Ebenezer
LOUISE: Since you been in Snow Hill?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: What about Pocomoke? Do you remember then?
EVELYN: Tindly’s Chapel.
LOUISE: Did you ever see Rev. Tindly?
EVELYN: No
LOUISE: He didn’t die until 1933 but he was already gone to Philadelphia?
EVELYN: Yes. We used to go into Pocomoke, into town. It used to be over the river and in town.
LOUISE: Did you ever travel much? Where have you been in your lifetime as far as have you been to Europe, California?
EVELYN: No. I always bogged down with the family.
LOUISE: Have you ever gone to Washington, DC or New York?
EVELYN: I’ve been to New York, for funerals but came right back. Didn’t see the city.
LOUISE: Do you feel like you missed anything?
EVELYN: No
LOUISE: They all came to you, didn’t they? What did you think of the videotape they did about you? Did you see the videotape they on TV that was about you? Didn’t they show the one at the restaurant where people came down from Washington and they were filming all around Snow Hill and they filmed in your restaurant and they talked to you and it was broadcast not too long ago, a couple of months
EVELYN: I haven’t seen it
LOUISE: You haven’t see it! Really?
EVELYN: Am I in it?
LOUISE: Yes you are in it, your restaurant is in it. Actually we had people call the Tourism Office and they wanted to come to Snow Hill to go see the restaurant because they saw it on tv up in Washington. I can’t believe you haven’t seen it. I thought they were going to show it at the restaurant someday. Well I will have to give you a copy.
They start out with you and later some of the people in the restaurant -Tommy Fitzsimmons and I can’t remember who else.
Let’s see what else I want to ask you because we are getting near the end of the tape.
EVELYN: Am I being taped?
LOUISE: Yes. We are taping all this. That’s the nice thing about taping, people get to hear your voice, your humor. You get a better picture of somebody then if you just fill out a questionnaire.
Can you tell anything about your favorite customers? That you catered for? It still everyone like to come to your place because it was relaxed and men would come sit at the table. Did you get all the good gossip?
EVELYN: I was always back in the kitchen. I’ll tell about this man I used to like to talk to, Mr. Paul Jones. He was a card. One day he was there sitting by himself and we would sit there gossip about all the things that happen in Snow Hill over the years. He said you nothing but a pick-my-brains. He was one of my favorite customers, Mr. Paul Jones and Mr. Tom Johnson.
LOUISE: Mr. Tom Johnson wasn’t he a senator or congressman?
EVELYN: Not that Tom. There were two Tom’s
LOUISE: Which Tom Johnson
EVELYN: This one was a farmer near Cedartown road near my father’s far.
LOUISE: What kind of farmer was he? And what kind was your father? Not like today where they raised chickens.
EVELYN: No they didn’t raise chickens. I don’t know what he raised. I did a couple of (inaudible) sets for him. His daughter got married. I used to go around and do things like that.
LOUISE: When you did that how did you get the food there- did you have a van or truck?
EVELYN: A car
(Inaudible conversation)
LOUISE: When did you first learn to drive? When did you get your license?
EVELYN: I don’t remember
LOUISE: Were you an adult?
EVELYN: Yes
LOUISE: Do you remember what kind of car you first had?
EVELYN: I think it was one of the old?
LOUISE: A big one. Well you have a pretty big one now, don’t you?
EVELYN: I got an Oldsmobile. I’ve had it 10 years. I got in 1984.
It was Robert Lee’s car. You know Robert Lee Smith?
LOUISE: Oh.
Where do you live in town now?
EVELYN: I live on Covington St. You know where the Chicken Man is. There is one on this corner and one on the other. I forgot what that used to be.
LOUISE: Whitely’s?
EVELYN: No it used to be Whitely’s on this corner.
LOUISE: Where the Shur-Stop is?
EVELYN: Yea where the Shur-Stop is.
Interview ends.