Douglass, Flossie (1897-1990) |
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
|
Interviewee: |
Flossie Douglass (1897-1990) |
| Interviewer: |
Katherine Fisher |
| Date of interview: |
1972 January 25 |
| Length of interview: | 38 Minutes |
| Transcribed by: | C Cole |
| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
African Americans—Education
Education
School
Worcester County (Md.)—African Americans
Worcester County (Md.)—Education
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Worcester County (Md.)—Women History
Corporate Names:
Box Iron School
Location Terms:
Box Iron (Md.)
Girdletree (Md.)
Snow Hill (Md.)
Interview Begin
INTERVIEWER: Hi. This is January 21st, and this is an interview with Mrs. Flossie Douglass.
FLOSSIE: Do you want me to read this over first before you start that? Would you like to hear it?
INTERVIEWER: Okay or you can just read it and we’ll tape as you go and then we can talk about it. Whatever you want. I’ve got plenty of tape.
FLOSSIE: Well either one, doesn’t make any difference. I can read it over.
INTERVIEWER: Okay
FLOSSIE: Alright and see if it’s what you want.
INTERVIEWER: Alrighty
FLOSSIE: Alright. Early education, I have in Worcester County 1926, that’s when I came to the county. I came to Worcester County in 1926, from Kansas City, Missouri and was assigned to the one room school at Box Iron, which was about 4 miles from Snow Hill on the old Girdletree- Stockton Road. The school was a small one room framed building located on the county road leading to Box Iron to Truitt’s Landing by Girdletree. The building had no lights and only a small wood burning heater for cold weather. The fire had to be taken care of everyday and sometimes the larger boys and other people in the community, who lived near the school, would help with the fire. The enrollment from November to March was 68-70 people with people sitting two in a seat. The enrollment from September- November was an average of 34-38 pupils. The larger pupils had to help with the farm crops in the fall and spring, while the smaller ones were able to attend school. There were no cabinets of any kind in the building, their lunches had to be kept in their desks. The desks were very old and some of the textbooks were ragged. We had seven grades in this small room and one teacher. Some of the pupils were 10 and 11 years of age in the first grade. The larger boys had to carry our drinking water from a farm across the road in a large galvanized bucket and a dipper with a long handle was used for drinking. I had the pupils to bring their own small cups later and they were kept in their desks with their lunches. Some of the pupils had to walk 3,4, and even 5 miles to school each day. I walked about one fourth mile from my boarding place to the school. The school was located near the county road leading to Box Iron and there was very little space for a playground. There was nothing but woodland in the back of the building. There were no screens in the windows, and we were annoyed with flies and mosquitoes in the fall and spring. At that time there was only one store in the community and two churches. One church still remains, the Saint Matthew’s United Methodist Church. The store was later used for our tenant house. The only industry in the community at that time was farming and the seafood industry. There were several large farms with corn and tomatoes as two of the leading crops. The men had their own boats for the seafood industry, which they used for oystering, crabbing, and clamming. They worked from Scott’s Landing and Truitt’s Landing. Their day’s work started at 5 AM or 6 AM and they had finished by 11 AM. The trucks came from Crisfield, MD to buy their seafood in barrels. We tried to have parent teacher meetings often, as often as we could. The only light we had was lamps and lanterns hanging on the inside of the building. When I visited the parent’s I had to walk 2,3, and sometimes 4 miles and the parents would bring me home in a horse and buggy. There were very few automobiles at that time. The parents were always willing to help I enjoyed the 5 years at Box Iron and did not give up. I am sure I helped someone. The Board of Education then decided to move me to Snow Hill. Now is that alright for Box Iron?
INTERVIEWER: Yes, it is. Goodness, that’s something Um.
FLOSSIE: I’ll turn this heat down. Are you warm enough?
INTERVIEWER: I am. I am very comfortable.
FLOSSIE: That’s the Box Iron part see then I came from Box Iron into Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
FLOSSIE: At Snow Hill B see that’s where I stayed there 18 years.
INTERVIEWER: Now describe to me in Box Iron. I know a little bit about where the school was. Is there anything left of it now?
FLOSSIE: No
INTERVIEWER: Okay. I didn’t think so.
FLOSSIE: No nothing. I think it was, I’m sure it was farmland because all back of the building was woodland. I’m sure this farmer just let them put the school there and then tore it down. It was right across the road from the Ball, was his name, Roy Ball’s farm. Roy, and there were two Balls. One was a stout one and one was a smaller one. The smaller one, his daughter still works out here in the gas company in the back.
INTERVIEWER: Oh.
FLOSSIE: That’s his daughter.
INTERVIEWER: I didn’t realize that.
FLOSSIE: That’s his daughter. She’s not a Ball, she’s married but her mother worked in the gas company for years.
INTERVIEWER: For goodness sake. Alright, so it was there. Now, I knew where Scott Landing is.
FLOSSIE: Now that’s going down Ayers Lane.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Now where is Truitt Landing?
FLOSSIE: That’s as you go down, well I don’t know what the distance would be, whether it was a half a mile or what, further you go down and then you turn into what they called Box Iron. At the light you turn, let me see, if..
INTERVIEWER: Go down there is Ayers Lane
FLOSSIE: No, don’t go down Ayers Lane, go to the next turn and that road will take you into Box Iron.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
FLOSSIE: (Unintelligible words) is on that side and that road will take you right down to Box iron and down to Truitt Landing.
INTERVIEWER: Alright good. I didn’t know where that was.
FLOSSIE: Uh huh.
INTERVIEWER: Where did, did the county supply textbooks for you?
FLOSSIE: Yea.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. People didn’t have to buy any of their own at that point.
FLOSSIE: No,
INTERVIEWER: At that point.
FLOSSIE: No, no, the county supplied them.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, Um, how young were the youngest children in Box Iron? Were they
FLOSSIE: Well the youngest children were, I guess they were from 6 years on up.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
FLOSSIE: Now the reason there were some 10 and 12 in the first grade, they had lived way back, maybe on a farm and the attendance officer, well maybe not the attendance officer, but their parents just didn’t get them out of there and send them to school. And when they did send them there were two or three families that the children were about 10 years old.
INTERVIEWER: I’ll be darned.
FLOSSIE: Mm. When they got them out of there.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have 6 or 7 grades?
FLOSSIE: Yes, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Good.
FLOSSIE: Yes, we had a number.
INTERVIEWER: And then the high school was
FLOSSIE: We had no high school. Only the Snow Hill. I have that in here. Only Snow Hill B they had two rooms up stairs they used for high school, two rooms downstairs they used for elementary, and two rooms over here at the Odd Fellows Hall
INTERVIEWER: I’ll be darned.
Typing sound.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, do you remember who owned the store at Box Iron?
FLOSSIE: Yea. The person that owned it, now later there was another store there but they had some problems in the second store, but the store that was there for years when I was there, was owned by a, oh why can’t I recall his name? Wait a minute now. Clark. His daughter owns the apartment here in Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Oh.
FLOSSIE: What’s her name? (Unintelligible words) That was her father. Owned that store for years.
INTERVIEWER: Alrighty.
FLOSSIE: Her father owned that store for years in Box Iron. Okay, now as I was saying, the store was Clark’s store and that’s his daughter that owns the apartments. Unintelligible words.
INTERVIEWER: I didn’t realize that.
FLOSSIE: unintelligible words.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Were there, okay you said there were four or five farms in the area, big farms.
FLOSSIE: Yeah. Large farms. Some were over on the Ayers Lane Road, and the Pusey farm was one. Oh, I can’t think of the names of all of them, but there were about 4 or 5 in the area. The Balls both had a farm, the girl in the gas company, her father had one and then her uncle had one. That was two, and then there was a big one, there was more than two over on the Ayers Lane Road, but I just can’t think of their names now. But there were several farms.
INTERVIEWER: Now for the school in Box Iron you drew from the surrounding countryside up to Snow Hill or was there one between Box Iron and Snow Hill?
FLOSSIE: No, there wasn’t one in between, just Box Iron and the next was Girdletree and then Stockton. And then Box Iron, Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, now let’s hear about Snow Hill. I’ll probably think of something else to ask about Box Iron in a little while.
FLOSSIE: Now where did I stop? Oh, now let me see where I was when I stopped with Box Iron. The parents were always willing to help. Here I am. Now then. I enjoyed the 5 years at Box Iron and did not give up. I am sure I helped someone. The Board of Education then decided to move me to Snow Hill, Now is that alright for Box Iron? I enjoyed the 5 years at Box Iron and did not give up. I am sure I helped someone. The Board of Education then decided to move me to Snow Hill. My first experience in Snow Hill was at Snow Hill B in 1931. We had a very small four room building again with no light and very small blackboard space. During my very first experience two of the rooms upstairs were used for the high school and the other two elementary classrooms were moved across town to the old Odd Fellows Hall. We had a pot belly stove in each classroom and coal was used and the fires were kept overnight. There was a janitor for cleaning and for taking care of the fires. The desks were old and broken. The textbooks again were ragged and torn. The floor was made of rough heavy boards. We had to climb 18 steps to get upstairs each day. The building had no playground, only ashes and cinders. Part of the playground was a hillside. There was only one water fountain in the small back hall for 150 pupils. The larger people had to hold or lift up the smaller ones so they could get a drink of water. One outside toilet for boys and one for girls. The only light we had for a number of years was the sunlight. In later years the building was wired. We were expected to follow or carry on the same schedule as the modern building and we really tried. All pupils that came to high school from Stockton, Girdletree, or Berlin or any other areas had to ride in covered trucks. The covering was used to protect them from the rain and snow. Some people found it difficult to ride such a long distance in a truck every day, so they found boarding places in Snow Hill until the weekend. Later there were a few buses to bring the people from Hutt’s and Friendship areas because they were closing those schools. Some had to be transferred to the Mount Wesley area. We were able, with all of these problems to be eligible for the school lunch program. The meals were planned, and the lady next door prepared the food in her home. And the larger pupils and the teachers helped with the serving of the lunches. It helped so many pupils. Often, we had to wait days and sometimes weeks for any repair work that was needed to be done on the building. After 18 years of service I remember Snow Hill B slightly leaning on its foundation from a strong wind from a hurricane that came up the Atlantic Coast.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my gosh.
FLOSSIE: It really was leaning. They would come up and we would be so nervous and when any of the supervisors any of them would come up we would say, do you think it’s safe for all of us? Yes, I think it’s alright I don’t think there’s anything. It was slightly leaning on that foundation. We were scared to death to stay but we kept going.
INTERVIEWER: There wasn’t any other place.
FLOSSIE: There wasn’t any other.
INTERVIEWER: Now where in Snow Hill was that?
FLOSSIE: Up on Collins Street right there above where, well now it was burned down you know. It was right there across from our cemetery I would say in that space above Moore’s.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Right above Moore’s. I never did realize where that was.
FLOSSIE: Yes, that’s where it was.
INTERVIEWER: Now they came from the Berlin area up to high school here too?
FLOSSIE: They came here. There was no high school in the county.
INTERVIEWER: I didn’t know that. Now this was 1930- 35?
FLOSSIE: Yea I came in here in 1931.
INTERVIEWER: My, 31. Okay. And you didn’t have bus transportation.
FLOSSIE: No. They came in trucks then. Didn’t have buses. Later they put on a few buses. And then of course later I have that in here too, see they built Ross Street. Well they made that, that was a high school first. See that was a high school. And then after they built Worcester well then, they moved us over to Ross Street.
INTERVIEWER: That became elementary. Okay. Now who was the lady or the family that did the cooking?
FLOSSIE: Mrs. Showell. Louise Showell. She is still living. There is a trailer I think there on the lot and her house still standing. She did the cooking. And of course, any of other ladies in the neighborhood that could lend her a pot or something you know, were very kind to help, but she did the cooking. And she’s still living.
INTERVIEWER: What were a, now you taught elementary school up here?
FLOSSIE: Yes. Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Were there um, you said you were to follow the same curriculum as the other schools in the county.
FLOSSIE: Yea, yea.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have the materials to do it with?
FLOSSIE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, I had assumed as much.
Unintelligible conversation.
FLOSSIE: Something you know, some of the rewarding experience, you know Anna Taylor out here?
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
FLOSSIE: She was one of the pupils. Mary Waters from Whaleyville, her sister, she was one of the pupils. All the Carey boys were up there.
INTERVIEWER: Isn’t that something.
FLOSSIE: That was rewarding. Edward Deshields, who is a wonderful carpenter. All of those people, they were Snow Hill B pupils.
INTERVIEWER: It doesn’t take a lot of equipment sometimes, it’s what you teach with.
FLOSSIE: That’s right, that’s right. And what you put into it.
INTERVIEWER: What you put into it. Do you remember anything special about discipline? Today discipline is such a thing.
FLOSSIE: Well I didn’t put that in there. In Box Iron I even had boys, there was one boy James Hayward that lives over the river, I think he was 17 years old. I didn’t have any trouble with those boys, and I was a little, I was young then when I came here. But I didn’t have any
Recording stops.
FLOSSIE: See you see.
INTERVIEWER: And they knew about it here.
FLOSSIE: They knew about it here. But we had a few more problems here in Snow Hill but not too many. And even in coming across town we didn’t have a lot of fights and so forth as the blacks and the whites as you would expect, because we tried to tell them how to go through the streets, not to be noisy, not be running in people’s yards, and all that. You could tell them then. You better not tell them now.
INTERVIEWER: Better not tell anything.
Unintelligible conversation. Break in interview.
FLOSSIE: Whom I think has a lot to do with it.
INTERVIEWER: Ah, okay, while we’re talking about Snow Hill were there, well, were there any black businesses in Snow Hill in the 30’s or anywhere like that?
FLOSSIE: No. no, I don’t remember anything no.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. I was going through some things on Pocomoke and there was a black, I forget his name, had a bicycle repair shop.
FLOSSIE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Sold inner tubes and things.
FLOSSIE: And then there was a black shoe shop I think at one time in Pocomoke.
INTERVIEWER: Yea.
FLOSSIE: Yea
INTERVIEWER: And I wondered it was any.
FLOSSIE: No, we didn’t have any. We didn’t even have a black restaurant at that time. You know of course know Miss Beulah Davis had a restaurant at one time before Evelyn opened hers around there near the library.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, where the old buildings were?
FLOSSIE: Yea. Where the old buildings were torn down. She had it first and then after she had to give it up why then Evelyn took Village Inn. But at that time, we didn’t have any.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Let’s see what comes next.
FLOSSIE: Oh, now, where was I?
INTERVIEWER: You had stopped with the Atlantic Coast.
FLOSSIE: Um, Atlantic Coast in Snow Hill B. Alright. And then I said in later years they built Ross Street School, which was the county high school. After building the new high school, we were transferred to the Ross Street School. Now I said I am leaving, and we are moving to Ross Street Elementary School, a new building with classrooms with electricity and plenty of blackboard space, a special closet for coats and hats, bathrooms for the girls and boys. We even had a school cafeteria. Well they had that you know when the high school was there, then later when they added on that new addition, they made a larger cafeteria. But the first one was in the old building and was small then they added those new buildings you know, on the outside, an office for the principal, a library for students, of course that was in there and they used it, and a central heating system. What a change. I can’t believe it. I spent 11 years at Ross Street and retired in 1960. There were buses coming in from many areas. You see they brought in the buses then from different areas you see, and they’d picked them up at Ross Street and take them on out to Worcester High School.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, they transferred didn’t they, I’d forgotten that.
FLOSSIE: Mm-mm.
INTERVIEWER: I didn’t realize that. Um, are there any, just sort of special experiences you remember as a young teacher or that stand out in your mind. You know like little anecdotes that happened or any special..
FLOSSIE: (Laughs)
INTERVIEWER: But don’t mention names.
FLOSSIE: Well there was one at Box Iron. I’ll tell you (laughs). The only way you could get rid of those mosquitos, they were like yellow nippers. Oh, they were the largest. I don’t know if you were here at that time, they were the largest mosquitos. And from my section of the country we didn’t know what a mosquito was.
INTERVIEWER: Out in Missouri you didn’t have?
FLOSSIE: Oh no. We didn’t have, no, we didn’t have screened in porches.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I think this summer I will go to Missouri.
FLOSSIE: (Laughs) Those mosquitos would set me crazy. So, the lady where I was boarding, she said, “Well you have to make a smother.” And I said, “Well what is a smother?” She said, “You take a large bucket, put some rags in it, and papers, rags and paper, and put plenty of rags you know. I forget, I think it was a little sulfur. It was real comical, but I would go up and down the road with a long stick under the handle of the bucket to keep the mosquitos from biting me. They would just drive me crazy. So, one day, we kept, then we always kept a smother in front of our building.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
FLOSSIE: The school. So, one day I told a boy, one of the boys, I don’t know what he was thinking, to empty the smother. I think it was getting near closing time.
INTERVIEWER: Mm-mm.
FLOSSIE: And I told him to empty the smother. And instead of emptying the smother in the spot that we had always emptied it, he goes out into this man’s woodland and sets the woods on fire. Well, Mr. Ball, the girl’s father, they came from everywhere. If they hadn’t, I would have been in trouble.
INTERVIEWER: Isn’t that something.
FLOSSIE: That would have burned up the woodlands. Oh, it was blazing. It was a good day for fire to burn.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my gosh.
FLOSSIE: Oh, and the children didn’t know what to do, but those men they were wonderful. They came in trucks. One, seems like, notified the other, and they put that fire out.
INTERVIEWER: Goodness.
FLOSSIE: I could never pay for that man’s woodland.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my word no.
FLOSSIE: We weren’t getting any salary. Oh, I would have been in trouble.
INTERVIEWER: Isn’t that, I bet he never emptied anything like that again.
FLOSSIE: No indeed. I (laughs). But he didn’t know.
INTERVIEWER: Oh dear.
FLOSSIE: He didn’t realize what he was doing. The boy just went out there and threw it in the woodland.
INTERVIEWER: What were your salaries?
FLOSSIE: Well at that time, now when I first came, I was getting only a $70 a month. And later they raised me, according to my qualifications, to 80, and of course they kept going up.
INTERVIEWER: Now, you paid for room and board?
FLOSSIE: Oh yes. You had to pay. Yes, yes you paid for your room and board.
INTERVIEWER: oh my. That didn’t leave much, did it?
FLOSSIE: Oh no indeed you didn’t get very far (laughs).
INTERVIEWER: Now could you, um. Now are you Miss or Mrs.?
FLOSSIE: Mrs. My husband’s been dead for 5 years.
INTERVIEWER: Were you able to be married and teach when you came here?
FLOSSIE: Oh yes.
INTERVIEWER: I remember earlier you couldn’t be married.
FLOSSIE: But you could when I came. Uh-huh. You could be married.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
FLOSSIE: Yea, I remember there was a time they said.
INTERVIEWER: Yea I seem to remember that. Um. When you left Box Iron did someone take your place there or did they close it?
FLOSSIE: No, they didn’t close it then. Someone took my place. I think a now, as far as I remember, Miss, you remember Emma that died the Carey brothers, remember she was out there in the office?
INTERVIEWER: Yea.
FLOSSIE: She took my place at Box Iron. Then later she just got out of teaching. She didn’t care about teaching. She taught at Hutt’s too, I think. 1 or 2 years.
INTERVIEWER: Where’s Hutt’s?
FLOSSIE: Well, Hutt’s is a, if you go over the bridge and over the river and you get there, they’ve torn that house down. Ah, how can I describe it? You turn to your left. The first road after you get over the river and go on up the hill you know by a
INTERVIEWER: Is it Red House Road?
FLOSSIE: Yes. Red House Road. That’s right. And you could turn to your left and go down and you would come into the Hutt’s area.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I didn’t know that.
FLOSSIE: Yea, they had a school there. Then they had one at Friendship. Now you turn to your right and go down, go through and around to Friendship, you know, and there was a school there at that time. They didn’t have, well you know the enrollment was very small and they didn’t feel it was necessary to keep those open. So, they closed them.
INTERVIEWER: Alright.
FLOSSIE: Miss Ruby. Ruby Waters well was at Friendship I think one year.
INTERVIEWER: For goodness sake.
FLOSSIE: Yea years ago she taught at Friendship I think one year.
INTERVIEWER: I thought of something while you were reading that that. Now I have to figure out what I remembered. When you were teaching at the one room schools did you have supervisors come visit?
FLOSSIE: Yes, we had supervisors. We had state supervisor’s and all.
INTERVIEWER: State supervisors.
FLOSSIE: Oh yea. Mr. J. Walter Hovington was the state supervisor and later of course his nephew took it over, younger man.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
FLOSSIE: Yes, we had a State supervisor come all the way down to Box Iron.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear.
FLOSSIE: Then you had a county supervisor.
INTERVIEWER: Well that I can expect but a state man.
FLOSSIE: You had a state man too.
INTERVIEWER: For goodness sake.
FLOSSIE: J. Walter Hovington. He used to smoke a pipe. Everybody remembers him.
INTERVIEWER: Did uh, today when a supervisor comes into a classroom kids pay no attention and act just like there wasn’t anything, but did they sort of perk up a little bit then?
FLOSSIE: Oh yes, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Were there, you said you didn’t have any lighting.
FLOSSIE: No, no lights.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. So, you didn’t really do anything in the evening.
FLOSSIE: No, you couldn’t.
INTERVIEWER: At school.
FLOSSIE: No, you couldn’t.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
FLOSSIE: You had to get away from there before dark because there was nothing. Now if we had a PTA meeting, the people from the surrounding areas would come in their horses and buggy’s and they’d bring their lanterns. Everybody that came would bring a lantern and they had lamps, and they had brackets and they would put the lamps in the brackets on the wall and then they’d hang the lanterns, as many as could to make the light and that was all the light we had.
INTERVIEWER: Was the school building used for holiday parties or anything like that?
FLOSSIE: No, no they never used if for anything,
INTERVIEWER: They used houses.
FLOSSIE: Yes, yes. Or they would use the church.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, that’s right, I forgot that.
FLOSSIE: No, they never used the building for anything.
INTERVIEWER: Alright now the United Methodist Church in Box Iron.
FLOSSIE: Saint Matthews.
INTERVIEWER: Saint Matthews.
FLOSSIE: It’s still there. It is still there. Of course, they’ve done a lot of renovating, but it is the same church that was there.
INTERVIEWER: Now is that a black church?
FLOSSIE: Yes, a black church. You go on down the road and you come around and you come through.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I know where that is.
FLOSSIE: Like you were coming on to Ayers Road.
INTERVIEWER: Coming onto Ayers Road.
FLOSSIE: Right. Well that was there then.
INTERVIEWER: Now when you came up to Snow Hill what church, Ebenezer, it was here but it was a different building.
FLOSSIE: No same building. Ebenezer was the same.
INTERVIEWER: Same building. Alright, now was the church over here, here? You know that, I forget the name of this one.
FLOSSIE: Mount Zion Baptist.
INTERVIEWER: Mount Zion.
FLOSSIE: It was here. Yes, it was here too. We had Ebenezer and the Baptist churches.
INTERVIEWER: Were the ministers of Ebenezer and Mount Zion. I know now they are, active community leaders?
FLOSSIE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: They were then as well.
FLOSSIE: Yes, they were leaders in the community.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Usually I am not at a loss for words, but you have just told everything so beautifully that I think really you have just about said it. You ripped that up. It was really good. Uh, oh, um, they got oysters down back in 1926. Let’s go back to Box Iron. The seafood industry was oysters and clams?
FLOSSIE: And crabbing.
INTERVIEWER: And crabs.
FLOSSIE: Course crabbing was more in the spring. That’s when they did their crabbing.
INTERVIEWER: Alright, now did the blacks as well as the whites?
FLOSSIE: Oh yes. My husband had his own boat. He was in the business.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
FLOSSIE: Had his own boat. Now there weren’t too many blacks. Maybe one or two. Not a large number. Most of them were white. Mr. Levi Truitt, I don’t know whether you know him, he was one of them that worked. He lives on the road that goes to Public Landing in that big yellow house.
INTERVIEWER: Oh yea.
FLOSSIE: That’s Mr. Levi Truitt.
INTERVIEWER: Now the boats, I mean the trucks from Crisfield came
FLOSSIE: Came to buy their seafood products.
INTERVIEWER: Came to buy.
INTERVIEWER: I didn’t know that.
FLOSSIE: They were sold to them.
INTERVIEWER: Did you um, was there any recreational boating during the summertime?
FLOSSIE: Well, yes, if anyone wanted to you know, go out in their boats they could and individuals would take them out in their boats. Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you go out?
FLOSSIE: Oh yes, I used to go out quite often. Then there was some of them now, Mr. Scott, who is dead now and lived at Scott’s Landing for years, He had his own big houseboat, where you could, they had bunks and all on there and we used to go down there and stay on the boat.
INTERVIEWER: Did you really?
FLOSSIE: Oh, it was a lot of fun. He had a big houseboat there. You know the had a Boy Scout building down there.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I remember that.
FLOSSIE: Well he had a big houseboat there. I don’t know where that boat is now.
INTERVIEWER: It’s probably fallen apart.
FLOSSIE: Yes, I’m sure it’s fallen apart by now. It had a kitchen on it and everything. It was a lovely boat. He lived right near the landing, Scott’s Landing.
INTERVIEWER: Right near. Did you go over to Assateague for beach?
FLOSSIE: Yes, you could go to Ocean City, you could go to any of those places. And then of course you could go to George Island Landing in Stockton too you know. And there’s a landing at a, oh what’s that one at Girdletree? (unintelligible words) school there but instead of going straight to your right you go to your left, and go right on in. It was right beside the church. I think they’re using that, part of that school building now for a recreation room for the church.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, or goodness sake.
FLOSSIE: Mm, I think they are, I’m sure they are.
INTERVIEWER: Alright.
FLOSSIE: That was Mount Wesley.
INTERVIEWER: I didn’t know where that was either.
FLOSSIE: That was the Mount Wesley School.
INTERVIEWER: I keep finding all these places, you know, and I think I have looked and found them all and then I talk to somebody.
FLOSSIE: And then you can find some more.
INTERVIEWER: And then I find some more. Goodness gracious. Now, your husband had his own oyster.
FLOSSIE: Yea, oyster and clams. See this is what happened. This is the way you had your oyster business. At a certain time in the year, that’s in the fall, no it was in the spring you go, they had to go down, they got their oysters from the James River in Virginia.
INTERVIEWER: Oh really?
FLOSSIE: You had to buy your oysters, but you had your beds here.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
FLOSSIE: and you put your, you bought so many, then you had your oyster bed, Mr. Truitt had his oyster bed and Mr. so and so had his oyster bed. And you knew where yours were, everybody knew where their oyster beds were.
INTERVIEWER: I didn’t realize that was how that worked.
FLOSSIE: Oh, yea you had to buy your oysters.
INTERVIEWER: Buy your oysters.
FLOSSIE: From the James River they would usually get them, because they were very good oysters. Exceptionally good.
INTERVIEWER: Well now I’ve heard. Back in reading some old letters and things they talk about James River oysters. And I couldn’t figure that out.
FLOSSIE: These oysters were James River oysters. They were good oysters, they were excellent. Yea, they were James River oysters. Course the crabs were right here and clams. They didn’t have to buy.
INTERVIEWER: And plentiful.
FLOSSIE: Oh, plentiful. Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Not like now.
FLOSSIE: Oh no. The price of them now.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my.
FLOSSIE: It’s ridiculous I used to put oysters, my husband used to have so many oysters, until people began to get after me and they said that was terrible because I didn’t, I liked them, and I like them today once in a while, but not like some people. They used to make oyster stew, oyster pie. But I used to put oysters by the baskets, those, I guess.
INTERVIEWER: The wire baskets?
FLOSSIE: No, the wooden baskets. I used to put them out on the trash we’d have so many oysters. And one day a lady from Berlin, she laughs at me today, she came along, and she said what are these? You putting these on the trash? and I said Yea, I’m tired of them, and then don’t you ever do a thing like that. Mrs. Bella Taylor. You remember her?
INTERVIEWER: Vaguely
FLOSSIE: She taught out at Worcester. She taught home ec.
INTERVIEWER: Oh okay.
FLOSSIE: She said you put it, I said yes, she said don’t you ever do a thing like that the way I like oysters. And I stopped then when I knew somebody that liked them then I would give them to them. They had a lot. You see and then they would have to take and shuck those oysters. They had a shucking knife. I have one today out in my woodhouse. My husband’s shucking knife.
INTERVIEWER: That’s horrible.
FLOSSIE: They can take and slit that oyster, and they could just take and slit that oyster and then take it out. That nice fat oyster.
INTERVIEWER: I tried, and I ended up slaughtering myself.
FLOSSIE: I didn’t even try. Ooh I’d ruin my hand. But they were delicious, they were. And an oyster stew was really good then. You know it’s not on my diet now, but I could eat those things. But I can’t eat a lot of those things now.
INTERVIEWER: I know today their getting $15 a bushel for them.
FLOSSIE: Oh yes, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Down on Chincoteague.
FLOSSIE: Very high.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, let’s see. When you came into Snow Hill there wasn’t much. Down behind where the library was, I’ve got a picture of the ’33 storm, you know that flooded?
FLOSSIE: Yea.
INTERVIEWER: You know? You remember that?
FLOSSIE: That’s right.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, there were a lot of houses down along where Worcester Fertilizer used to be that I don’t think they’re there now.
FLOSSIE: Oh no.
INTERVIEWER: They’re not there. Okay, then there weren’t any places of business or anything back in there.
FLOSSIE: No, no, I don’t remember any places of business.
INTERVIEWER: Other than that. Were you living here?
FLOSSIE: In 1933.
INTERVIEWER: That was a little close to the river if you were.
FLOSSIE: Yea, yea, I was here, no because I came down in, no, I’ll tell you where I lived first. Do you know where the Chapman’s was? because I lived there from 1931to 1936. I came down here in 1936