Bradford, Laura (1899-1988)
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Copyright: Records are open for research. Copyright, including literary rights, belongs to the Worcester County Library. Permission to publish or reproduce must be obtained from the Worcester County Library which extends beyond “fair use”.
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
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Interviewee: |
Laura Bradford (1899-1988) |
| Interviewer: | Kathy Fisher |
| Date of interview: |
1983 May 25 |
| Length of interview: | 45 minutes |
| Transcribed by: | David Nedrow, Alice Paterra, Worcester County Library |
| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
1933 Storm
Domestic Life
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Worcester County (Md.)—Women's History
World War I
Corporate Names:
Civil Conservation Corp
Location Terms:
Public Landing (Md.)
Salisbury (Md.)
Snow Hill (Md.)
Interview begin
INTERVIEWER: OK. Today is Wednesday, May the 25th, and I’m in Public Landing interviewing Miss Laura Bradford. Um, Miss Laura, what is your full name, and your married name?
LAURA: My, uh, I was, ah, christened…Anna Laura Parsons and I married Harry Bradford.
INTERVIEWER: OK. Um, when were you born?
LAURA: I was born, ah, October 22, ah, 1899…
INTERVIEWER: Alright.
LAURA: …which makes me a senior citizen.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. A senior citizen in age only, not in action! Um, where were you born?
LAURA: I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ah, on a, at a 50th and Westminster Avenue.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, how did you come to get to Worcester County?
LAURA: Well, ah, my father was born and raised in Parsonsburg, Maryland. And my mother in Laurel, Delaware. And they went to Philadelphia to work at an early age.
And ah, they didn’t meet there, but Parsonsburg camps, years ago everybody had camps you know?
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: And ah, then Papa, ah, they had Parsonsburg camp, and papa would be down there, and mother, living in Laurel, when she came on vacation, they would go to Parsonsburg camp too. And that’s where my father met my mother.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: But they weren’t married for five years. He worked and she was a seamstress. Not only a seamstress, but she was really considered an artist with her needle.
INTERVIEWER: Oh!
LAURA: She would just do beautiful work. And even though, it was, um, she had all these Children. She was 30 years old in August, and was married the following January 10. And from then on, for 12 years, she had seven children. And she still sewed and I remember, (chuckle) my mother. I remember that old sewing machine… (unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Ohh…a sewing machine?
LAURA: …and, yes, a sewing machine, with a baby across her knee (unintelligible).
(laughter)
INTERVIEWER: Ohh… (laughter)
LAURA: But, mothers didn’t go back to work those days. They did their work at home.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: And she got along real good with all of us. And a, she raised a right fair buncha kids.
INTERVIEWER: Awww… (laughter)
LAURA: We have one brother, and he was the eldest, and then there were five girls.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: Now one of our sisters was, a, raised at Laurel Delaware with my mother’s, ah, sister’s husband. They had some babies, but they were dead born.
INTERVIEWER: Aww…
LAURA: I think two, and one died a little while after it was born. And they loved children. But for some reason, they loved all of us and we’re good to us, but, a, they just took a notion to Lenore. She was named for mother. So one time they came, and they wanted to take her home for a visit. And I can see her now. And we have a picture, I don’t have it, but we do have one, of her dressed in a little red coat and a little tied down bonnet and a Japanese parasol in her hand…
INTERVIEWER: Aww… (laughter)
LAURA: …and little white shoes and stockings. That’s how she was dressed when she left home that day. Well, they kept her for nine whole months before they brought her back!
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear!
LAURA: And when they brought her back, she was so used to them, she didn’t want to stay with us. Well, my aunt said, “Well, we’ll take her home again, and then come bring her back.” They came back again several months later, and she still didn’t want to stay, so they kept her the rest of her life…
INTERVIEWER: Aww, and raised her…
LAURA: …and raised her and sent her to college and she was married from there and…
INTERVIEWER: Aww…
LAURA: … she never forgot that she had a mother. But, ah, she was the one that I stayed with in the winter, down in Florida.
INTERVIEWER: Ohh..
LAURA: So, ah, my uncle (unintelligible) second time, and as I said, they had no children of their own. He had a farm and he had timber. And at that time, when he was coming along, he was right prosperous. So he left her everything he had. Which was nice.
INTERVIEWER: Right
LAURA: So she had two children and they call my aunt, ah, Granny May and they call my uncle, ah, Granddaddy Jack…
INTERVIEWER: Okay…
LAURA: …instead of grandmother and grandfather.
INTERVIEWER: Righ…yeah…yeah…
LAURA: But I thought that was kind of cute. But they were always known as that. We said aunt and uncle. But, ah, we had a good life. Ah, my brother lived to be 66, I think he died in 61.
INTERVIEWER: Ok
LAURA: And he made a living selling cars for the last several years. Although he lived in California along time. Ah, but one time I hadn’t seen him for 12 years.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my!
LAURA: He had been home to Philadelphia to mother’s, but I wasn’t there. But it was 12 years before I saw him.
INTERVIEWER: I’ll be darned.
LAURA: But he worked out there. And he liked California, but I think that kind of got to the point where they wanted to be home, so they came back and he finished (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Now where did you meet your husband?
LAURA: Well, now that’s a story. Huh! I stopped school and went to work at the telephone office. My sister, my older sister, was the… chief operator in the Salisbury office. So I stopped school. Papa was working in Philadelphia. We were living in Salisbury. And so, if he had been home, I wouldn’t stop, because he wouldn’t have allowed me to. But I did and I went to work.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhmm.
LAURA: And Harry, he did work in the courthouse in Snow Hill, but he had a job night operator in Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Ok.
LAURA: And I worked daytime for a while. But then they put me on night duty. So I got talking to him, and we talked for a year (laughs) before I ever saw him. Then one day, one night, he said, ah, “I’m going to Salisbury on such and such a night”, it happened to be the night, the first night in December. 1916, I guess. And he said, ah, “Can I go to see you?” I said, “Well, if you can find where I live you can come, but I won’t tell you.” And I didn’t. So the woman who worked with me, the older woman who worked with me at night, so he called her and she told him. And he said that, “You tell me where Laura lives. I want to go see her, but she won’t tell me. I’ll bring you a box of candy.” Well, he came to see me. Well, you know those days, girls didn’t go out with boys they didn’t know then. They had to have a chaperone and…
INTERVIEWER: Right
LAURA: …all that stuff.
INTERVIEWER: Right
LAURA: Well, I was ready to go to work when he got there. And I had on a, I wasn’t very big (unintelligible). I had a blue serge suit, a little buster brown collar and my hair down my back with great big hair bow on.
INTERVIEWER: Aww.
LAURA: (Unintelligible) (laughter) So would, I never could understand (unintelligible) why mother let me get in the car with a strange boy and go to work.
INTERVIEWER: Isn’t that something?
LAURA: He said, “I’ve often wondered why your mother ever let you get in that car with me?” I said, “Well, I guess maybe it was just meant that I should.”
INTERVIEWER: Right
LAURA: So he took me to work. Well, first he lived in Snow Hill. He, he had no car of his own, when he came he borrowed. But he would come on the train. He would come on Saturday afternoon, the train, and he would come see me. Then he went downtown. They had ah, a Peninsula…Hotel where ah, where (unintelligible) is on the right. And he stayed there nights. He’d come Saturday at noon, stay there at night and come see me Sunday, and Monday morning. And at noon he’d come home. Well, he had to go to, ah, Berlin and take a car and come to Snow Hill…
INTERVIEWER: …and come to snow hill, that’s right.
LAURA: So that was our courtship. Well, after a while he did get an old car. And it had isinglass curtains, and they’d blow in the wind and all that stuff, (laughter) and cold as blazes at night. Then one night ah, before he left, mother says,” You ought not let that boy come see you with this cold weather.” (Unintelligible), but he wanted to come, I guess! So she made him hot chocolate and let him have some of that to drink before he left, so he could keep warm. And that was a great time!
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I think so!
LAURA: Oh that was something!
INTERVIEWER: Ohh, um, now, when did you get married?
LAURA: Well, we were married, you see, the War was on. It came in 1914.
INTERVIEWER: Right
LAURA: And, ah, he enlisted in the Navy on, ah…December the 12th, 1917.
INTERVIEWER: OK
LAURA: And he wanted to get married before ah, he left. But I was young, Mother didn’t want me to, but ah, aw, he had a fit. He cried, he bawled. He wanted to get married you know? And I was scared to death! I didn’t know if might come back or he might not, right?
INTERVIEWER: Right…right.
LAURA: Well finally I (unintelligible) and something mother. And so we got married on April the 18th.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: 1918.
INTERVIEWER: Uhuh…
LAURA: Well, my sister had been engaged to a boy from Salisbury, for a long time. But, she just didn’t want to get married. They was first (unintelligible). (Laughter) But he was in the company allies, 115th division. And they had to go to, well they went to, ah, Mexico. But then they got home and then they had to go to Anderson, Alabama for training. I don’t know just when they went, but he came home Christmas Eve, and they were married Christmas Eve, 1917. And he was home that week because she stayed with mother, with him, that week. And then he left. And when he could find a room, where they could stay together in Anderson, Alabama,…
INTERVIEWER: All right…
LAURA: …then he would send for her.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm…
LAURA: Well he did. Well, I was going to get married the 10th of April. And I had been in her wedding and I wanted her to be at mine. But she had to go! So I didn’t have her. So she went to Anderson, Alabama. Well we thought that she had gone to the ends of the earth! We didn’t travel that far those days you know! So, away she went, left me! Well, she stayed with him and I think, if not mistaken, I think she came home in July,and she stayed, because they had to move out. You know what I’m saying?
INTERVIEWER: OK
LAURA: And, ah, she came home pregnant.
INTERVIEWER: Oh for goodness sake!
LAURA: And the 10th of October, that year, she never saw him again. The 10th of October he was, ah, shot down in some ambush.
INTERVIEWER: Oh!
LAURA: Killed.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my.
LAURA: And ah, her baby was born the first day of February.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, poor thing.
LAURA: So she went to, uh, stay at my folks at, after I got married, mother moved back to Philadelphia, papa ha, had found a place and gone back. And I came here and lived with Harry’s parents. And, almost 19 years I lived with my in-laws.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, for goodness sakes!
LAURA: I bet you never did that!
INTERVIEWER: No!
(Laughter)
LAURA: Well, ah, they were in business. They had a, ah, garage and ah, they sold ah, ah, farm machinery. International Harvester, the farm machinery.
INTERVIEWER: All right
LAURA: And they sold cars later. They sold Studebakers. But then, they gave that up and sold Chrysler Plymouth.
INTERVIEWER: All right
LAURA: And did, until the last.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Where was their business?
LAURA: Ah, where the district court is down in Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: All right…
LAURA: You know that, that was at (Unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: …right. Ok, that was there.
LAURA: Well, ah, he, they, uh, oh, huh, the mansion house over here was ah, carried on as a hotel…
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: …and a boarding house. Well, it was really a boarding house in the beginning but now it’s a hotel, like when we moved here. The people, I don’t know, I can’t tell you, who, it was some firm down in Pocomoke, owned it. And ah, it failed. So they sold it.
INTERVIEWER: OK
LAURA: In 1936.
INTERVIEWER: OK
LAURA: Well, ah, Harry just loved sales. So he went to the sale. He bought it, he came home. He had bought this new house.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: And it was all fixed up for the summer. Of course, ah, we got along grand together. And they loved me and I loved them. They had a fit when we moved. So this is 36. And he started right in that fall to ah, get it fixed up. And the 33 storm had damaged it right much. (Unintelligible) the top and it came up under the house and living room floor, like this…
INTERVIEWER: Ok
LAURA: …and the front pushed away and everything (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Ok, right,
LAURA: And we got it finished and he said that we would come down here in the summer. (Unintelligible) come down before summer and get it done
INTERVIEWER: Mmhmm
LAURA: (Unintelligible) put the heat in, I didn’t think he would. (Laughter) But, well this was just the screened in porch that he had, uh, pull all that away and built this new. Now the rest wasn’t new, but this was all new. And, ah, he put a great big board down there and we had ah, coal…furnace.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: Well, that was a nuisance.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
LAURA: Because he worked in town and I was working for the town, you know.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: Anyhow, come Christmas, I was, he wanted to come down for Christmas. I said, “Let’s not go down for Christmas. Let’s wait. Everything is here, Furniture and everything.” I said, “The folks don’t want us to come anyway.”
INTERVIEWER: Right
LAURA: And until that Christmas (unintelligible). (Unintelligible) was 17, he’d been born in that house and they didn’t want him moved.
INTERVIEWER: Right
LAURA: Well, he said OK, so we stayed till the 3rd of January, 1937. Blackest place you ever saw or would likely see anywhere.
INTERVIEWER: Oh for goodness . . .
LAURA: There was one family two or three doors down and (unintelligible) camp was way over here behind the Archer.
INTERVIEWER: Uh huh.
LAURA: Well, I had nice new stove, everything nice. Got to getting supper. Time for him to come. And I guess it blew a fuse. Had no lights, had no stove, had no nothing.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my dear.
LAURA: Well, I call home and when I left, we left that day. It was a Monday. His father had been sick, he was sitting in the kitchen, in a rocking chair rocking, with tears rolling (unintelligible). So I called, and I said, “Did Harry stop by?” He said. “No.” I said, “Well if he stops by, tell him I’ve done something, and I’ve blown a fuse or something. Don’t have the stove, no lights. He better bring some fuses.” So he did. And he fixed it up. So, so, his father said, to his mother, “Tell him to bring that Laura”, he always called me “that Laura”, “Tell him to bring that Laura back here. She don’t want to live in no such place as that.” (Laughter) I never will forget that.
INTERVIEWER: Awww
LAURA: Then they all teased us and gave us 30 days and we’ve been there since 1937.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, you’ve outstayed you’re thirty days didn’t you?
LAURA: Well my brother said he was disgusted. He thought Public Landing (unintelligible) so he said, ah, ah evra, “Nobody lives down there but millionaires and dang fools.”
(Laughter)
LAURA: And I don’t know which I am. I’m not a millionaire.
INTERVIEWER: And you didn’t think you were the other…
(Laughter)
LAURA: I didn’t think I was a fool. So that was the end of our moving.
INTERVIEWER: OK. Um, now back up a little bit, to um, when you came to Snow Hill when you were first married in 1918. Okay, your parents and your husband worked for the garage, or his parents rather. Okay, they had the garage. Um, what were some other businesses that you remember in town that aren’t there now? There are a lot of them.
LAURA: Oh, there are so many. T. H. Collins was on the corner of the insurance place there.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: And ah, next to that…
INTERVIEWER: Now did he sell clothing?
LAURA: Oh yes. Men’s clothing. Lovely things. Beautiful things. And I think next door where the, ah, dispensary is, is was, was ah, kind of Acme, but it was called um …American Stores
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: American Stores Company.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhmm
LAURA: And Harry’s sister was first ah… ah…cashier. And you know, she had a little stall in there and she sat in this little stall.
INTERVIEWER: Oh for goodness sake.
LAURA: And Bill Cherrix’s father was the, ah, manager.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: You know Bill Cherrix…
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I know Bill Cherrix.
LAURA: His father was the first manager there. That’s where he worked.
INTERVIEWER: All right. OK.
LAURA: And then next to that, I think was, ah, ah, Mr. D. H., D. S. Hudson. Well, he sold a little of everything. Men’s, mostly men’s clothing.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: But, ah, sometimes somebody’d come along with vegetables, and he’d buy vegetables, and put them out front. And people come along…
INTERVIEWER: Ok
LAURA: …and they’d have to give him something (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Mmhmm, mmhmm.
LAURA: And next to that was a man named Diamond, Mr. Diamond, and that was a clothing store.
INTERVIEWER: Oh!
LAURA: Yeah. Well, the men’s side, Goodman’s, was, Mr. Diamond’s ah, store.
INTERVIEWER: All right, that was his.
LAURA: And then, next to that was Jay E. Shockley and Company, Wholesalers.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: And, ah …ah, let’s see what came in, the drugstore, Mr. (unintelligible) had a lovely drugstore there.
INTERVIEWER: All right. That would be where Sno-Mar is?
LAURA: Yes, where Sno-Mar is. That was a nice, nice drugstore.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhmm.
LAURA: Then there was a little, what they call, hole in the wall. And it was an old doctor, a real old man.…Dr. Aydelotte.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: Well, (unintelligible) a crazy thing, he sat a chair up front and ah, had a cane and hit’em as they went by and (unintelligible) and they’d do something to make him do it…you know?
INTERVIEWER: Aww.
(Laughter)
LAURA: And he had a long beard, you know, like (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Uh huh
(Laughter)
LAURA: And then, next to that, you know… I can’t think what was next to that. Oh, yes. Goodman’s store.
INTERVIEWER: Oh! Goodman’s was down there?!
LAURA: Yeah. That was next to that. And on the end, was ah, Miss Mary Dryden. Did you ever know (unintelligible) Dryden?
INTERVIEWER: I know Miss Mary.
LAURA: Well…
INTERVIEWER: Or knew Miss Mary.
LAURA: …his father had that store.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: He sold all kinds of things. Ah, general, gloves, work pants, (unintelligible), neckties and stuff.
INTERVIEWER: Right
LAURA: Well, ah, cross the street there where the . . . what is on the corner now? I don’t know what there was there. (Unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, the police are in there now.
LAURA: Oh yeah, uh huh, that was Mr. Marion Hartigan’s store. That was (unintelligible) store.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Okay.
LAURA: And then, ah, Bill Cherrix’s father had the hardware store.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Okay.
LAURA: And that was next door, I think. I think it is.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: Where Mabel is.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, where Mabel . . . Where the bank is.
LAURA: Yes. Well no, the bank was on the other side.
INTERVIEWER: That’s right. Where Mabel is, right?
LAURA: That was a bank. That was a Commercial Bank. They called that Commercial.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, OK.
LAURA: Uh, but that’s a National bank.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: And later, Harry’s sister worked for Mr. Horace Payne. For 35 years. But not always there. They were over the river for a while. But he bought that place and he, that’s where they had the office. He sold money. You hear of him selling the money?
INTERVIEWER: No! (Laughter) No!
LAURA: They made a big profit too!
INTERVIEWER: Oh for goodness sake’s! So, he was in the loan business?
LAURA: He was a lender. Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, he was a lender.
LAURA: He liked to say he sold money, (laughter) He sold money.
INTERVIEWER: I like that.
LAURA: Well, on the corner where the drugstore was, was just a vacant lot with a big board fence around it.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, all right. I’ve seen pictures of that on a postcard.
LAURA: Yes, vacant lot with a board fence. (Unintelligible) It was very, very nice. (Unintelligible) Later on they build a restaurant between the, well it was attached to the hotel. But it was a nice restaurant.
INTERVIEWER: All right, and who had that?
LAURA: Well it, the people who, Mr. Tom Purnell owned the hotel and they, ah, built it.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And then (unintelligible) there. And then later on Ed Brimer and Joe. They ran it (unintelligible) for years.
INTERVIEWER: All right
LAURA: Then ah, we had ah, an A & P store in town. And I think, if not mistaken, it was right next to the restaurant. (Unintelligible) store. And Walter Price had a soda, a soda fountain and ice cream parlor, there.
INTERVIEWER: Parlor…All right.
LAURA: And ah, who else was there (unintelligible). I lay in bed to nights and I can see it, every bit, and name every one of them. (Unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: Then there was a, a … milliner … a, a, Mrs., uh, what was her name…
INTERVIEWER: Not Miss Molly Fooks?
LAURA: Uh-uh, no. She was on the other street.
INTERVIEWER: All right
LAURA: Oh, now I know that name (unintelligible).
LAURA: And then after that was the movie house. And but it was set back, it wasn’t right on the street, it was set back, and the ice cream parlor, and you know (unintelligible) Parks?
INTERVIEWER: Yes!
LAURA: Well, her father ran that for years, the ice cream parlor and store, and upstairs was the movie. And they just had one stairway, well, but, later on, they had another stairway.
INTERVIEWER: Now where, was that at one time called Mason’s opera House?
LAURA: Yes. Years ago.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Before that…
LAURA: Yes, before that. Well, that was really before I came here. And he, ah, Mason was a friend of Harry’s. They used to pal around together, go galin’ together and all that stuff.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: But, ah, let’s see, and Arthur Drewer had the….
INTERVIEWER: Barbershop, Ok.
LAURA: … barbershop. Now that was the place! That’s the place where the men all loaf. Well, they used to (unintelligible). I wasn’t crazy about dogs (unintelligible). So one day, I was going downtown, and those (unintelligible) men (unintelligible) there was a front door and a back door. The back door was on Washington St., I mean a, Market St. And one of the men had brought a dog in, and tied two cans to his tail. And just when I went by that door, he walked behind me and scared me almost to death. Which was all they wanted to (unintelligible). Harry used to love to tell that dang story. (laughter) And the Post office was on the corner, there across from the opera house…across from the drug…ah…what…court house.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And the telephone office was above, upstairs.
INTERVIEWER: Oh. Above the Post office.
LAURA: That’s where Harry’s office was.
INTERVIEWER: OK. Where he was working…
LAURA: Yeah, that’s where he worked.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: He was the neatest operator you ever saw. Ah, they opened at, ah, down the (unintelligible) ice cream parlor, they had a back room, and they’d go down there playing poker at night.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And he’d leave the telephone office and go down and help them play poker. And the telephone rang, it didn’t bother him. He, he’d, he, it rang and rang and rang.. (unintelligible). (Laughter) Oh, my! (Laughter)
INTERVIEWER: Um, now, what, what do you first remember of, um, Public Landing? When did you first start coming down here…
LAURA: Well…
INTERVIEWER: …just on visits (unintelligible).
LAURA: … we were married in April. I guess we came that summer.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And it wasn’t any stone road, you know, it was a dirt road…
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: …and what they called a corduroy road. You know what that is?
INTERVIEWER: Logs?
LAURA: Logs across there with bumps and bumps (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Was it still the same road as we follow today?
LAURA: No…
INTERVIEWER: Or was it a different route?
LAURA: …no, you turned off, I can’t really tell you, you turned off several times, went through the woods, (unintelligible), out on the road, and back again and(unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: All right. Yes.
LAURA: (Unintelligible), well it came out there. Well, they ran behind that store.
INTERVIEWER: Oh!
LAURA: (Unintelligible) but behind that (unintelligible) it certainly took up a lot of room.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, for goodness sake.
LAURA: Yeah, (unintelligible) and time he got to this, ah, store as I call it, it’s not a store anymore, Harry’s sister was nine when I, came here. And she (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: About how long, now you would come down in a car…
LAURA: No! We didn’t have a car at that time…
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: …but we had a truck.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: A red truck, and, ah, we’d come, Harry and I would. Someone else was bringing, the rest of the family.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: And one time, I had great long hair. Great, great long hair. Great big bun when I put it up. And we came on Sunday afternoon. Harry, he was a little (unintelligible). (Unintelligible phrases)
INTERVIEWER: (Laughing)
LAURA: But it was good. We had a lot of fun. Lot of fun. And then that thing (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
LAURA: Harry’s sister and I came on two different weekends. Now as it is now, it, that one big room across the front…
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: …but it used to be a big hall.
INTERVIEWER: Oh!
LAURA: And nobody on the side…
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: …and we had the room on that…..side (unintelligible). Great big bed and a little bed in there (unintelligible) and it was a lot of fun.
INTERVIEWER: I think so.
LAURA: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: How much was it? Do you remember?
LAURA: How much did we pay?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
LAURA: Well, I suppose it wasn’t much more than three dollars a night, I would imagine. I don’t know, but I’m sure it wasn’t any more than that. Another thing, I guess you saw the picture, they had a, later on, not then, they had that, what you called a (unintelligible) on the corner.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, I want to know more about that.
LAURA: Well, when we came down here ah, it was just a square building, all screened in, on two sides and front. But on the back was like a little… ah, (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: OK. Now was it on the mansion house property or was it built out over the water?
LAURA: No, it was on the mansion house property, right in that corner.
INTERVIEWER: OK. Right in the corner there.
LAURA: Right in the corner there.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And they had dances, square dances and all kinds of things…
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And then, ah, they had, when it was a hotel, they had ah, banquets in there, you know…set up tables, had banquets.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Right.
LAURA: But act, and it wasn’t called (unintelligible), they just called it the pavilion.
INTERVIEWER: All right, the pavilion to the hotel.
LAURA: And then ah, when they moved it, they moved it, down, way down there. I guess you knew that.
INTERVIEWER: OK, right. On the other side of the parking lot?
LAURA: Yes, but at that time, they had enclosed the whole thing.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: And ah, they had big times down there, too. Big times. Sometimes, shouldn’t have been such big times. But it was always busy.
INTERVIEWER: OK. Was there one person who ran it?
LAURA: Well ah, I think it changed hands several times. I remember ah, Elbridge Tilghman ran it one time. Do you know who he is?
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I do.
LAURA: He ran it one time.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
LAURA: And then, ah, …
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LAURA: …the hotel was there, well ah, that burned down a few years ago…
INTERVIEWER: Alright. That used to be called the DeGib, the DeGibbier house.
LAURA: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And ah, he bought that and turned it into, ah, a hotel…
INTERVIEWER: Oh! All right.
LAURA: Yeah. He had nice meals and everything there.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: Then, ah, he sold that to a man from New York named Green. And ah, I think they just really had it for a home. They didn’t live there too long. Ah, Mr. Alton Jones bought it from him.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
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INTERVIEWER: Um, now you remember coming down here when all the amusements and everything were here.
LAURA: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Um, and you’ve given us some good pictures, which we copied, that showed the amusements. Um, who, did Purnell own all of that, I know that Purnell had a cottage on the end of one of those piers.
LAURA: Yes. That was Miss Tom Purnell, ah, that had owned the hotel. That was his daughter.
INTERVIEWER: Right. All right.
LAURA: And she married a Mr., ah, see how you learnt something and it went away? Well, she married and then they got divorced. (Unintelligible) And that was her summer house.
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LAURA: Mr. Matt Carl took care of that mess, the old man Tom didn’t. He was a gentleman. But Matt did. And after the storm, her (unintelligible)…
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: …they built another. (Unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Oh!
LAURA: And Harry’s sister, as I said, works for Mr. Payne and, ah, he (unintelligible) and after her work, after five o’clock, somebody would bring her down and he would take care of it, she would take care of it for him. In the meanwhile, my husband’s so mad he doesn’t know what to do. “(Unintelligible) got no business doing stuff like that and selling beer. She, a nice church woman.”
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: Well, I don’t know what happened. But anyway, they quit that business.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: So, that was the end of that.
INTERVIEWER: But, there were bowling alleys here, after the storm.
LAURA: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: On the, on the, you know…on the, landing.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Um, now, I know, before the storm, it was busy down here, because I’ve seen a lot of pictures.
LAURA: Oh, yes!
INTERVIEWER: But, where did people come from?
LAURA: Well, they came from everywhere. They came in horse and buggies and they came in ah, straw (unintelligible)…
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: …and lowdown wagons, as they used to call them.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: There was a big, Evelyn, in the restaurant.
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
LAURA: It’s her grandfather that used to bring (unintelligible) people down.
INTERVIEWER: Oh!
LAURA: He’s a great big man. They called him, Old Big Lev.
INTERVIEWER: All right. I hadn’t heard about him.
LAURA: Yes. Old Big Lev.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
LAURA: And he would ah, hook up his old big, I guess, lowdown wagon, with straw, and people would come in that.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: Now there’s a, a, church called, Mount Olive, as you go to Salisbury…
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
LAURA: …I think you’ve heard of that?
INTERVIEWER: Yes. I know where that is. Right.
LAURA: Well, they had a social. Whatever they called it. I guess I call it a social. That had a big dinner.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: And people would go and they, of course I never knew them but I, it happened while I, since I was married.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: They’d pack up a great big mess of food, and go there, and eat, and then they’d pack up all that’s left and bring it down here. Why they didn’t have too many (unintelligible), I don’t know.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: (Unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear.
LAURA: And they’d come in droves! And they’d park clear down this road.
INTERVIEWER: Oh!
LAURA: And they’d park clear down that road.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness!
LAURA: Oh, yeah! On this road.
INTERVIEWER: Was that like, what they used to call Farmer’s Day?
LAURA: Right. Yes, that was Farmer’s Day.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: It was always that day after the Mount Olive…the thing.
INTERVIEWER: Festival.
LAURA: And that went on for years. But I don’t know, was it war stopped it, now I don’t know what stopped it.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: Now, there’s a man that a, used to come to Ocean, stay down here some, Mr. Jim Moore. And he just loved Harry’s (unintelligible). They were real good friends.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: And he kind of a, ah, Deputy or something. Or a, he helped a, park cars.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And one night, there were all these in, in, cars going everywhere and those (unintelligible) carts carrying people and wagons and such. And somehow, somebody ran into Mr. Moore and knocked him down.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my!
LAURA: And I guess broke his leg or hip or something. And Harry, he was a kid on a bicycle, and he heard Mr. Moore call, and he went and looked, and there he was. Down. And he got him up and got him some help.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness.
LAURA: Oh, Mr. Moore never got over that. He said Harry, he saved his life.
INTERVIEWER: Aww.
LAURA: He was just a kid.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
LAURA: But they did have big times.
INTERVIEWER: OK. Um, since you’ve been in the Snow Hill area and down here, is there any commercial fishing, or crabbing or clamming that that has gone on off here?
LAURA: Well, yes. Ah, particularly the, the crabbing, of course it is now. You know they, now I was talking to one of the neighbors and she said her granddaughter’s coming and she had asked her grandmother were there any crabs around? I said, I hadn’t seen any seen any though. She said, “Yes, they are crabbing”. But I have no, I don’t come out here much but give a visit (unintelligible). But, ah, yeah, and then they have, they’re upset sometimes, with one county come over and the other county, they’ll have a little fuss…
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: …and fight and stuff. But I haven’t heard any tell of it. Maybe (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: But back in the early days too, they crabbed and clammed off your (unintelligible).
LAURA: Oh, yes. And caught lots and lots of fish. Of course, now when the 33 storm washed the ah, part of the ocean over here, I think there’ve been more fish, too.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: Now our boys, our grandsons, have a big commercial net. But I don’t think they’re quite as avid about it, is the word. But they go out there Saturday nights and put that thing out and come back Sunday morning and bring in the biggest load of fish you ever saw.
INTERVIEWER: All right. OK.
LAURA: And ah, lot of shark. The shark would eat some of the fish, and then they’d give me one that’d been eaten on and I’d fix that and eat it myself.
INTERVIEWER: How Nice.
LAURA: Huh. Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Ah, were there, ah, fish markets in public landing or were they in Snow Hill?
LAURA: Oh, no. Nothing in Public landing.
INTERVIEWER: Nothing in Public Landing.
LAURA: They never had anything much commercial in Public Landing. Very seldom. Very little.
INTERVIEWER: A little, there’s been a little store.
LAURA: There’s been a little convenience store.
INTERVIEWER: All right. And that’s about it.
LAURA: Uh-huh.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Um, you said when you came down here to live in, the 30’s…
LAURA: ’37.
INTERVIEWER: ’37, that there were only, OK, tell me about the CCC camp.
LAURA: Well, I…
INTERVIEWER: If you know.
LAURA: …I (unintelligible) remember what it’s called. You know what it was called?
INTERVIEWER: No.
LAURA: Something about the con, conservationist, or something.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Civil Conservation Corp.
LAURA: Uh-huh, that’s it.
INTERVIEWER: That’s what it was.
LAURA: CCC. Well, it was, it was really nice for boys that had nothing, and no work and nothing, you know. And it prepared them for the Army which wasn’t too long after that they had…
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: …to go, you know.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: And ah, they had married (unintelligible) girls in town.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: Yes, and, a lot of the boys married girls that come down here, you know.
INTERVIEWER: OK. The boys that were in this CCC camp, they were not from around here?
LAURA: No, they were brought in here. I don’t know, I guess there might have been some. But they were brought in here.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: The a, I guess the Army, government or something.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: Then they had one on Pocomoke Rd. at the same time.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Now where was this one located in Public Landing?
LAURA: Well, behind the (unintelligible) club there was a, an orchard.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: Back in there. And it was back in that orchard.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: And if they were quiet, you didn’t hear anything out of them. And you could, they had lights of course, all over the across the yard, and you could see the lights.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember any of the names of some of the boys that did marry local girls?
LAURA: Well, I know one! He married Mabel Baker and he lives on a, Federal St. in Snow Hill. They call him…a. What do they call him? They call him by his last name. Can’t think what that is. You don’t know Mabel Baker?
INTERVIEWER: No. I’m trying to think.
LAURA: I can’t, I know I (unintelligible) but I can’t think of what his name is.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: But anyhow, he married. And then a, there was one married to… aw, what was her name? She worked at the drug store for years. And they had, each one had a baby…
INTERVIEWER: Aww.
LAURA: …that they, a little baby that (unintelligible) and died.
INTERVIEWER: Aww.
LAURA: (Unintelligible sentences)
INTERVIEWER: That’ll do that. (Chuckle)
LAURA: But there’s been a lot of changes down here. We’ve had a lot of a, houses built around.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: And a whole lot of new people.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: People move in, people move out.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: But me, I stay here. I, as far as I know, I’m the oldest in age and the oldest in residence.
INTERVIEWER: All right, you’re still here. OK.
LAURA: Well, now I can tell, I’ll tell you (unintelligible). It comes down from mouth to mouth. The reason it’s called Public landing was, now Chincoteague had no roads in or out. (Unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: And all the stuff they a, a the grocery stores, and all that kind of thing and lumber, everything, they had to come in boats. And, a, in the winter time when it would freeze it’d come in sledges.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: Homemade sledges.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: To Public landing, to pick up the stuff, to be brought down here…
INTERVIEWER: Oh, for goodness sakes. To Chincoteague?
LAURA: To Chincoteague.
INTERVIEWER: All right. I did not realize that.
LAURA: Uh-huh. Now we had a man, and wife from New York. The name was a, a Ayre, Mr. Ayres. Mr. Ayres. Well, they were on a little trip down this way, and they came through here and thought it was the prettiest place they ever saw and they wanted to live here.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: So, I don’t know how long it was before they came and built the last half down.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: They built that little house. It was cute but It was awful low and had bad storms, bad storms. Well, after he came down and lived awhile, he didn’t retire, he had a, a jewelry store, real high falootin’ jewelry store on 5th Avenue in New York.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness!
LAURA: And she had been a trained nurse. I think that’s how he got her, because he was real bad off…
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: … and she was a nurse. That was the story. I don’t know how she puts up. Well he wanted the name changed. He thought it was the most ordinary name he ever heard. Well, he went before the Rotary Club, and he went before some other people and he put it in the paper.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: He wanted people to write letters, and, suggest names. But it didn’t go, or get him very far.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: And I said, why change it, been there all these gener…
INTERVIEWER: Right!
LAURA: …ations, why change it? (Unintelligible) And he was nice when he first came, but he got so, he thought we were just a little bit too countrified, I think, for him.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: You know, he kind of got (unintelligible). He and Harry were friends, when Susie is a B friend. See?
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: Susie was a B friend (unintelligible) he wasn’t…
INTERVIEWER: He wasn’t friends with (unintelligible).
LAURA: (Unintelligible) people like that.
INTERVIEWER: One more thing I want to ask about is the ’33 storm. You weren’t living here then. But, um, I know it took everything away, that was built out here, just about.
LAURA: Well, it…
INTERVIEWER: What do you remember about it? And how did start? You know, that kind of…
LAURA: Well, it had been raining a, a few days. And blowing. But a, now I thought it was the 23rd, but Harry, he said it was absolutely the 22nd. And how I remember so much, my mother’s birthday would have been the 24th. It’s right in that area…
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: …you see. That’s how I remember that part.
INTERVIEWER: Now this is August.
LAURA: August. 23rd or 22nd third and fourth.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: I think probably, by the 24th, it had died down and, and, and…
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: …left, you know. Well a, we were in Ber a, in Sno-Snow hill. And a, Harry’s brother, had a little girl. (Unintelligible) Pocomoke. And we all, got in the car, and he had a car, he came down. And a, you’ve got a picture of it, the house on wheels we called it, (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm. Yes.
LAURA: Well that poor girl is in there…
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
LAURA: …and Harry. She was about 11…
INTERVIEWER: All right
LAURA: …something like that.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: And we came to the end of the wall, a the, end of the, the road…
INTERVIEWER: Mhhm.
LAURA: …and stood there and watched it. Well, it was just like, a box of matches, just going down. All those big buildings…
INTERVIEWER: Oh, for goodness sakes.
LAURA: …were just… Well, Alma (unintelligible) father, took care of the bowling alley out there.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: And they just refused to come in. Cause they didn’t think it was going to do anything.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness!
LAURA: And they just made them come. And they had, no more got on shore…
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LAURA: …alley and a pool tables, and a theater, and…
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm.
LAURA: …and they had something else too, called a “Walking Charlie”.
INTERVIEWER: All Right. Tell me about that.
LAURA: Well he was a, mechanical man, and he was on a, a, I don’t know whatcha call it, rail I guess.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: And they shoot at him, you know. And he’d dodge…
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
LAURA: …and he’d keep right on walking. And it, it was the funniest thing. And they call him “Walking Charlie”.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
LAURA: Had a nice Merry-Go-Round.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: I’ve always been sorry that we didn’t a, get one of them horses or something off the Merry-Go-Round just for fun. And I heard a, a Elbridge Tilghman say that, why you, and I never thought of him at the time, cause his father had charge of all that stuff. He was over there.
INTERVIEWER: All right.
LAURA: And he said, I never thought of it at the time. But I’ve always been sorry I didn’t say something, you know?
INTERVIEWER: Yes. Yes. Well what happened to all of it? Was it just, piled up and burned?
LAURA: It was piled up and burned, I guess. And taken away. I don’t remember about that.
INTERVIEWER: OK.
LAURA: But that’s how a, (unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Right.
LAURA: Well it’s a funny thing. I was talking about that, and they said there was no such thing. I said, there is such a thing. I saw a picture of it. Well, I was down on the boardwalk one time, and there’s some different people out there. And this man, they were tourists, and a, tourists, but anyway, they didn’t belong there. And he kept asking about it, and I told him (unintelligible). Do you think I could find those dog gone pictures? I came to the house, and I could not find them. And guess he went home knowing I was (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Isn’t that funny? (Laughter)
LAURA: But I do have it, I know it. (Laughter)
INTERVIEWER: Was the, the slide part, was it made of wood? Or metal?
LAURA: I don’t know what it was made of. I don’t know what they make ‘em of.
INTERVIEWER: I don’t either. I, I keep thinking wood tends to splinter sometimes, and you’re in your bathing suit…
LAURA: It might have been metal. I don’t know.
INTERVIEWER: Mmhm. OK.
LAURA: But it was high for a place like Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
LAURA: Well, they have ruined it now…
Interview ends