Hudson, Clinton (1909-2003) |
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
|
Interviewee: |
Clinton Hudson (1909-2003) |
| Interviewer: |
Neil Massey |
| Date of interview: |
1982 April |
| Length of interview: |
1 Hour, 3 Minutes |
| Transcribed by: |
Lisa Baylous |
| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
Domestic Life
Farming
Transportation
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Location Terms:
Berlin (Md.)
Ocean City (Md.)
St. Martins (Md.)
Interview Begin:
INTERVIEWER: This is an interview with Clinton Hudson. Um, what, what’s your full name?
CLINTON: Clinton John Hudson.
INTERVIEWER: All right. And, um, what year were you born?
CLINTON: 1909
INTERVIEWER: 1909
CLINTON: May the 9th.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Um, where were you born?
CLINTON: Here at St. Martins.
INTERVIEWER: Right here at St. Martins?
CLINTON: On the same farm that I live on now.
INTERVIEWER: And you lived here all your life?
CLINTON: All except one year.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
CLINTON: I lived in Wicomico County one year.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Um, tell me a little bit about your parents. Give me their names.
CLINTON: Well, my father’s name was (unintelligible) Hudson and my mother’s name Lilly Hudson. Former Dennis. Lilly Dennis Hudson. (Unintelligible) I’ve got three sisters and two half-brothers and one half sister. But, they’re, my half-sister and brothers are all dead. My own sisters (unintelligible) sisters are still living.
INTERVIEWER: Um, what did your father do?
CLINTON: He was a farmer.
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible)
CLINTON: Ah, strawberries and tomatoes. Maybe a couple acres of tomatoes and half acre of strawberries. (Unintelligible) and he cleared up new ground in the woods. (Unintelligible) new ground in the woods. (Unintelligible) new ground. (Unintelligible) new ground. Pulled stumps up and I helped him do that with a stump puller (unintelligible) mule or a horse and go around and around (unintelligible) he has and drilled around some. Drilled with a (unintelligible) and drug it out. And now, the difference is a bulldozer do more in ten minutes you would in two hours with a (unintelligible) stump puller. So, I helped him do that. And, (unintelligible) corn and hay to feed (unintelligible) cows. Two or three cows. Didn’t have too much hay. Later years, we had hay. The first three, three years, fodder for the team. Took tops, shift blades. You know, you cut the tops off the ear and throw them down corn rows together, then in the afternoon, do that in the morning. In the afternoon, we’d come along. There’d be three negroes there. There’d be twelve single rows of corn. About four rows all together, called (unintelligible). And, uh, three men, or one good, but it was nice having three, take the top three rows we (unintelligible) horse together and pick up about three (unintelligible) and tie with the stalks. You’d be (unintelligible) enough that you tie with the stalks. Then, you carry it to this little row and set it up. And the middle man, the middle row, he had, uh, he had three bunches, you know. One from each side and one from the middle. He’d take a stalk and tie them off (unintelligible) sit there two or three days or a week, maybe, so it would cure out. And, uh, then you went back, you’d strip these blades with the stalks (unintelligible) harness sticking out (unintelligible). Maybe go ten yards you’d go and get a bundle of blades. So, you’d take some of these blades and wrap around these blades and tie it and stick it up on this other (unintelligible) a blade (unintelligible). Like a wind (unintelligible). And, every so often, he’d (unintelligible) these wind rows or all these blade rows would go across. And they’d stay there two or three days to dry it. Then, you’d go ahead and stack this up. That’s what (unintelligible) use the team on. Then, later on, they got cutting stalks, or (unintelligible) the whole stalks (unintelligible). That was a big, uh, issue. And, that was…Of course, you didn’t have to strip the blade, and you didn’t have to cut the tops, stack it. You shuck these up. Maybe sixteen rows you’d take. Uh, you could (unintelligible) take twelve and make a shock row and tie them off with a twine string. And then, in the wintertime, or in the fall, you’d (unintelligible) to get the corn out of the heap (unintelligible) put in the wagons (unintelligible) whole ears. Today, we have a combine (unintelligible) out, shell it, put it in trucks. That was all hand labor. So, it’s quite a difference now then (unintelligible). It was all hand labor. Then, after you work in the fields, saving this fodder, or any, uh, saving hay. We’d cut hay with a five-foot mower most time, with team. And, we’d cut about six acres and a half a day. That, that was pretty good to cut that many. See, now, we cut six acres in about an hour with a wind blower or something like that. The boys was cuttin’ this morning. And, uh, then you, uh, rake this hay up with a horse rig (unintelligible) cross-ways and, uh, it went around and around. It’s like you cut it, you take two (unintelligible). The horse rig would take two, uh, (unintelligible) of the mower and rake it. Then, you went along with a pitchfork and you heap this up in hay, uh, cocks of hay, we called it. Heaps of hay. While they stand up, double it up, you know. Then, when you let it stay there a little while, maybe a half a day, or if you want to do it right away. Take a wagon. Somebody on the wagon. Then, one or two dashes up each do it and gather a load of hay up to it to the barn or, or stack it. Sometimes, we take this (unintelligible) and rake it up. Now, that was, uh, one way of doing it (unintelligible). Putting it in the cocks and (unintelligible) the barn (unintelligible) the hay for it (unintelligible) like that. Then again, you can take this same hay that is horse raked and after it was cut with (unintelligible) dried enough to stack, we’d just take some (unintelligible) out in the field, one scatter it here and there and take this horse rake, horse rake and, uh, one would stack it and throw it up. This, uh, horse rake (unintelligible) straighten this hay up this stack right there in the field. Just, uh, short distance from it all the way around it. Rake it up and have stacks of hay all through the field. But now, you, we cut hay with a twelve-foot wind rower. And, uh, it, uh, threshes it, or rolls it, mashes the stalk (unintelligible) the juice be opened up until the sun dry it out quicker. And, it also puts in a wind row, too. There’s three (unintelligible) at one time. There’s twelve-foot (unintelligible) different size. There’s eight, nine, or sixteen, I think they’ve got it. We’ve got one that’s, uh, twelve foot. And, uh, (unintelligible) three things: Cuts it and threshes it and wind rows it. Then, it dries two or three days. Then, we take a (unintelligible) chopper and on this (unintelligible) chopper self-propelled or, we’ve got a self-propelled used. It just chops it and blows it right into the wagon. (Unintelligible) one man does that through the operation. Then, the other man comes along and, uh, rakes the wagon and unloads, puts it in the silo. Two men can put in about twenty acres of hay thataway a day, whereas before, with a pitchfork, you’d do good if you got four or five acres with three or four head. And then, the baling, that come before the chop (unintelligible) horse, so to speak. Baling come after the pitchfork. Well, let me go back…The hay loader come after the pitchfork. Hay loader, yoked up behind this wagon and you had to have a side (unintelligible) to go around and round. You shouldn’t do it with a, a dump tray to rake this hay because it was too big of heaps. So, you had a side deliver to this hay loader (unintelligible) or team or tractor or truck. Two men on the wagon, one driving the team or tractor or whatever you had. It only took two men on the wagon. And he would bring it right up. In this wagon is loose hay. And, uh, then you unload it (unintelligible). And then, come the baler. Now, some, oh, about the same time, the hay loader and baler. I don’t know which come first, but, uh, in your, your dad has baled some for me when I was younger and when he was younger. His dad had a baler and they’d come bale some before I got a baler. And, uh, well, tied up with wire. And then, they got string baler. Most of the string balers. Not twine. It’s not quite a big of bale as (unintelligible) baler. That was one good way. Baler was a nice way to handle hay. But, this chopped hay (unintelligible). You’ve got harvest stores or these blue silos, we call them. They’re really harvest stores (unintelligible). And we’d load this chopped hay in, ah, (unintelligible) chopped hay and it stays preserved just like a can of peaches is preserved, sealed. Ah, oxygen (unintelligible) and, uh, it’s as good as (unintelligible) as you can get. And, some say (unintelligible). Even my wife says (unintelligible) you chop it up for them. You don’t chop it up (unintelligible). So, that’s, uh, improvement over, ah, what we used to do when I was younger. And, even in crops, we’ve changed quite a bit from where we grow corn, soy beans…Well, we didn’t grow soy beans when I was a boy. Didn’t have ‘em. Had a few (unintelligible) once in a while. Grow a little bit. (Unintelligible) them. But now, (unintelligible) grow hay, and, for cows. ‘Course we’re in the dairy business here, and that’s a different operation than crop farming. ‘Course, crop farming goes along with it, too. (Unintelligible) little, little different machinery (unintelligible) where tilling ground and, uh, harvesting and all with cows. Similar to beef cows only it’s a little more, uh, confined than beef cattle, dairy cows is. You, you know that, I suppose, from your, your folks, your farm and all. So…(unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Um, your grandparents…were, were your grandparents, were they farmers, too?
CLINTON: Uh huh. Far as I know. I never, (unintelligible) just (unintelligible) remember one grandmother. That’s all I remember. Talking once or twice to her.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Um, when you were a child, you were talking a little bit about the home life as far as the work that you had to do. Um, mostly, that’s what you did. Just work, work around the farm?
CLINTON: Yeah. Work on the farm. And, uh, after I got up (unintelligible) I was cultivating corn with a (10-12-30) (unintelligible). We had a mule and Papa had (unintelligible) go one half, cultivate one half row at a time. I used to get started walking. We had an old, uh, (unintelligible) riding cultivator. (Unintelligible) reach the pedals to guide it. When I got long enough, I got on that, and that was fun riding. I could ride. That was carrying one row at a time. Then, later on, we got a tractor and had two rows. Now, we’ve got four or six or eight. It’s come from thataway. Most of your work was walking. We’d plow the team, a pair of mules or horses cut about eight or nine inches. Now, the smallest plows is fourteen, sixteen. Some eighteen (unintelligible) five or six, seven, eight and ten plows, whereas pulled just one. One plow per team. If you laid on the ground in the middle, you didn’t get (unintelligible) to turn around. It catch up on one side and that was slow work cutting about eight or nine inches. (Unintelligible) five or six plows. That’s about the average that most have now. It don’t take long to hitch up if you, if you don’t get it quite in the center. So, it’s quite a, quite a change in that respect.
INTERVIEWER: And, most of the work was done with teams.
CLINTON: Teams.
INTERVIEWER: And, a lot of stuff you just hook, walk. Walk along.
CLINTON: Walk along almost everything. Once in a while, we’d have a disk. About a four-blade disk. A ten-blade disk (unintelligible) one way. You could ride on that if you put enough team on it. But, that would reach the ground. You had to double-cut it to keep the ground level. (Unintelligible) all one way and have a double (unintelligible) like we’ve got now (unintelligible). I never did have one then. (Unintelligible) a homemade scrub made out of board. About three boards. (Unintelligible) pieces, we called it. Two by, two by ten or two by twelves. About three of them nailed together. Scrubbed (unintelligible) a day’s work. (Unintelligible) you quite about an hour before time to quit plowing (unintelligible) half a day or morning. Keeps drying out. The water’s fresh. A plow (unintelligible) it wouldn’t just melt them clogs unless it was real, real hard (unintelligible). One of the, uh, um, a piece of equipment we had around (unintelligible) we’d have a drag. Then, they had a double (unintelligible) drag made out of wood like a, a, uh, printed “A” shape with two bars like a printed “A” and, uh teeth. Like straight down (unintelligible) on it. And, uh, you (unintelligible) like that, too. Then, they got the iron drag with levers you could set your angle on your teeth (unintelligible) straight to the ground. Then, you take this middle tooth out. You had a middle post, or bar in the middle, this tooth in the there. And, uh, you take it out. (Unintelligible). I’ve done that. Just with these spiked teeth. So now, we’ve got (unintelligible) packer. Not (unintelligible) packer, but rotary hoe to replace the (unintelligible) that I used to work (unintelligible) with. These heaters are just as close. About as close as the…each of the corn planter wheel. Press wheel that the corn planter planted. And, we would just throw in just enough dirt that it would cover the corn up. It was about an inch tall. It still wasn’t covered up unless it’s (unintelligible) standing. Go on the road (unintelligible) ride (unintelligible) yourself (unintelligible). So, quite a change in the cultivating. Now, we don’t even cultivate corn, now. Lot’s of times, we spray. We didn’t have no spray when I was a boy. I didn’t know nothing about no spray. Then, in the later years, I don’t know, in the ’30’s, sometime late, (unintelligible). We didn’t have no (unintelligible). Like we’ve got wild (unintelligible) in the fields. I don’t know just how many years (unintelligible), but not too many years back (unintelligible), we had to spray for, for, uh, (unintelligible) and grasses, too. (Unintelligible) grass type. It takes a different spray. And, that’s (unintelligible) cost. Something to do that, though. Well, before we used to use a hoe. We’d be out in the field and hoe corn, day after day, to kill the weeds before we got sprays. That’s kind of slow.
INTERVIEWER: Um, tell me a little bit about school then. Ok.
CLINTON: Well, we had a, ah, local schools. Is that what we called local? Oh, we had one. Almost every little community had one. We had one down at St. Martins. Went up to, to the, uh, sixth, sixth grade. Seventh grade. Seventh grade. Well, there were schools, two schools. The lower school was four grades and the next one was five, six and seven. Then, we went…If you went to high school, you had to go to town like Berlin in this part, this northern part of Worcester County. We didn’t have no school bus. You had to drive or walk. Walk. So, you had to have a horse and carriage. My sisters drove a horse and carriage when they went to high school. I was a little younger. Uh, older sisters…I was a little younger and time I got to high school, we had the buses. Not too many. But, you still went to these, uh, little schools, uh…What do you call them? Local schools? You don’t have too many anymore. You go to a central location (unintelligible) big towns and all. And, uh, you had (unintelligible) teachers. This, one of the teachers I went to was real good. (Unintelligible) she’d make you mind, take care of your health and…I got my feet wet one day, ah, playing around in the water. I had new shoes on. I was running through this water. I didn’t get my feet wet, my pant legs all wet. She made me come in and she switch my feet. Pulled my, pulled my shoes off. Had to sit by the fire, dry my feet out and clothes and pant legs. So, they were, they were very helpful and I appreciated it, even now. Of course, a lot of people appreciate it now. So, uh, high school was just to eleventh grade, then. Eight and nine, ten and eleven. Four grades. Changed it to twelve, now. And, you had some, uh recreation. You had soccer, and, uh, uh, volleyball. That was the two when I went to school. That was all the games. Well, they had baseball, too. Yes. Baseball.
INTERVIEWER: Um, what were your teacher’s names?
CLINTON: Miss May Gillis. Uh, down at St. Martins. And, she taught this one school all my lifetime, and some before I come, she taught. She taught until she retired. And, the other higher school, uh, had several teachers. They come from…Miss (unintelligible) Collins, Miss (unintelligible) Collins (unintelligible) taught higher school. I think both of them taught there at separate times. And then, Miss Carrie Burbage was another one that taught down here. And, uh, Miss Graham was another teacher to the higher school. I don’t know whether…that’s about all I remember right off the bat. And…
INTERVIEWER: Um, how long did you go to school? Did you…?
CLINTON: Well, I went until I graduated.
INTERVIEWER: You did graduate?
CLINTON: In ‘29 (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Mm hmm.
CLINTON: Uh, I was sick back when I first went to school. I didn’t get to go the first year. So, it made me a little bit older when I got to school.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Um, how about recreation? You said you played soccer and—
CLINTON: Yeah. I played soccer.
INTERVIEWER: --(unintelligible).
CLINTON: That’s about all I played. (Unintelligible), um, like field day and those activities. And, we won a mile relay. I was happy to be on that. We had to win that (unintelligible) county. But, they didn’t…weren’t no competition, the other county that day, so we didn’t get to run against nobody else in Wicomico. Jack Farlow was on the team with me and (Unintelligible) Collins and Paul McGee was on this mile relay. We wanted (unintelligible) anyway.
INTERVIEWER: Um, did, did you play any games? Or, did you swim? Or—
CLINTON: No.
INTERVIEWER: No.
CLINTON: We…lunchtime, we wrastled or, or box a little bit sometimes, we got a set of boxing gloves for a time (unintelligible) just for fun.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, how about the community around here? Were there any special occasions? Like any, any days that you’d set aside for…
CLINTON: Not (unintelligible) church activities. (Unintelligible) Christmas (rose) (unintelligible) Christmas (rose) (unintelligible). She went, she taught (unintelligible) in church (unintelligible) in thataway in the community. And, we had a church, we had a festival every once in a while when I was a boy. (Unintelligible) ice cream and, uh, cake, and, uh, lemonade of that nature. That was probably the only activity that we had there.
INTERVIEWER: Which church was this at?
CLINTON: It was, uh, the Methodist Church at St. Martins.
INTERVIEWER: St. Martins Methodist Church? All right. Ok. How about, um, uh, going to town? (Unintelligible).
CLINTON: Berlin was the closest town, about three miles and a half where our farm is, where I lived. And, uh, we’d just go there when we couldn’t buy things, too. In the St. Martin’s area, we had three local stores in St. Martins. Two when I was born, and later on, they had three. Now, we’ve got none of these country stores. But, Saturday afternoon, my dad, he’d go to Berlin. Saturday afternoon was kind of a…leisure day, I guess you call it. Go around and visit, go to town. Just go to town every Saturday afternoon. The banks were opened Saturday afternoon, then, when I was a boy. And then, a little later on, they (unintelligible) close. And, he just got in the habit of going and talking to people and he’d maybe buy some few things. But, not too much. Like today, we go once a week to shop. Grocery shop in Berlin, I guess that we called it. Didn’t grocery shop much. We’d buy some, uh, something extra (unintelligible) once in a while. And, that’s about all I can remember he bought. We had people sell ice cream, (unintelligible) a man named (unintelligible), he’d come with a five-gallon freezer of ice cream and sell on the street, I remember, every day. He’d get me some every once in a while—ice cream cone. I guess they had, I don’t even know if they had any confectionery shops. (Unintelligible) like, uh, (unintelligible) is there, now. But, later on, we had two in there. They didn’t, then, though. Things have changed quite a bit. We didn’t have to go by the grocery store, too much. We raised all of our food at home. Our hog meat…We didn’t have to buy our hog meat. And beef…You’d buy some of that once in a while. Not too often. They didn’t even have too much of that in the store that I remember of. Used to have a little bit, but…Beef was a rarity for us. But now, it’s not a rarity. We have our own beef, you know, freezer (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Um, what sort of businesses were in Berlin? Do you remember much about that?
CLINTON: We had a car dealer later on. Uh, about 1914, I think. Come in s-s-selling cars. I don’t guess exactly what year, but somewheres back—after that, about that time. After World War I, the cars (unintelligible) coming around, in 1918. When World War II ended and there’s quite a few more then, um, Dad had, uh…he got a Model, Model T in 1918, I believe it was. And that’s (unintelligible) a touring car. So, you had to crank them. That was something great. Then, they had bigger ones, a few bigger ones. Not like they do today. But, you’d still use the horse and buggy quite a bit at that time, to ride around. So…But, now, you don’t see (unintelligible) on the racetrack (unintelligible). Not for pleasure, much.
INTERVIEWER: Um, about the cars, uh, you said they first started coming around…What’s the first one you remember riding?
CLINTON: I believe it was, uh, a Maxwell, best I remember. (Unintelligible) had one, (unintelligible) had one, Tim Dennis, a Maxwell and a Ford. I don’t know what company built the Maxwell…Uh…That’s about all I…There was a Stanley Steamer (unintelligible). That’s about the first one that I remember. (Unintelligible) when I was a boy, ten…nine or ten, (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Um, then, still most of your transportation was horse and carriage (unintelligible) or walk. Um, what about trains? (Unintelligible)
CLINTON: Oh, yeah. We had a train. The (unintelligible) C and N come from Salisbury and Berlin and to Ocean City. Ah, it was right by my half-brother’s farm in St. Martin. Then, we had a, a station at St. Martins. Had a station, all these local places. St. Martins, Willards, Pittsville, Parsonsburg. All (unintelligible) all (unintelligible) local places, towns. These trains went right through. And, we had, they picked up crates and passengers. You had a passenger train and you had a freight train. Then, later on, I think it diminished. The passenger train went out. Then, later on, the freight did. Before the freight train went out, uh, we had a (unintelligible) pan. You, uh, had a station agent (unintelligible) station agent (unintelligible) and, had his (unintelligible) pan, he (unintelligible) shift to a locker in the yards. Ah, shipped coal and (unintelligible) and rice were some of the brokers in the (unintelligible). I remember we shipped calves, too. And, uh, in the fall, we killed geese and dress them and shipped them to these places (unintelligible) and send them on the trains sometimes. Most of the times that was on trucks. They got to be a truck express after a while. A local man would carry these geese. First, it was train. And, uh, we carried these calves down and shipped them. (Unintelligible) calves. Maybe two hundred or two-fifty. We got maybe twenty, twenty dollars, twenty-five dollars. We got right good sometime (unintelligible) got a little more than that. But, twenty, twenty-five dollars is right—(audio cut out)
INTERVIEWER: All right.
CLINTON: These (calves)…I said twenty, twenty-five dollars, the best price when we ship them. Well, there was (unintelligible) the quality of them, too. The size and what shape they were in. And, uh, that was a cash, uh, flow of money to be had. So, that was counted up right good. Twenty, twenty-five dollars (unintelligible). And, these geese, maybe that you sold, raised and dressed, that was just once a year, uh, sale. That was cash, too. Uh, (unintelligible) you maybe get maybe two dollars or, uh, two and a quarter, or something like that a head or a big goose. And, that was cash money, also. Then, we, we had, uh, strawberries, and we done most of the pickin’ ourselves. We hired someone once in a while to pick strawberries. Then, we had some to-tomatoes. Maybe a couple of acres tomatoes (unintelligible). You’d pick them yourself and sold them. We, in the ‘30’s, I contracted tomatoes, twenty cents by the basket. Several years I did that. Once to (unintelligible) Selbyville, once to (unintelligible), at, uh, Whaleyville. And, uh, we made a little money on that. And, uh, potatoes. We grew about a couple acres of potatoes. And, that was in the ‘30’s. But then, we got in the dairy business. (Unintelligible) potatoes. If you get too many irons in the pot (unintelligible) without a whole lot of help. So…Uh, farming operation has changed quite a bit in the, uh, different things that we grow. I believe I mentioned a while ago that we just grow grain. We come back to growing wheat now in the last two or three years where we used to grow wheat. When I was a boy and first married, and that’s grows different, how different. Now, we (unintelligible) how one hundred acres of wheat before, uh, (unintelligible) twenty or thirty acres. Did it all with a team. Cut it with a binder and (unintelligible) with a thrasher come in and then thrash it. (Unintelligible) they’d get six cents a bushel for thrashing it, eight cents (unintelligible) price went up. And, we sold wheat at sixty cents a bushel. Right from the thrasher, I have. That was in the ‘30’s. But now, it’s…(unintelligible) what, two, three, something I believe it is. (Unintelligible) but a different way of operating, one man can, uh, combine wheat this, hundreds of bushels in one day, where, before, it would take dozens of, for this thrasher…he’d have to get about a dozen people to help run this thrasher and it was quite (unintelligible) had a big, had a big dinner them days. That was one good thing about it. Hard on the women who had to cook it, maybe. They, they did.
INTERVIEWER: And, uh, this thrasher, that’s one, that’s one of, one of those big things (unintelligible) the guy would come around, right?
CLINTON: Uh huh. Go all through the neighborhood. One man that owned the thrasher. First starting off, he (unintelligible) used to have one and he’d thrash all around this section. Then, he quit and we had to pick up somebody else. Let me get back to this, um, uh, train. I never did finish quite all that. It went to Ocean City, and, uh, you could get on the train at any of these local places. Have an excursion every once in a while. Go to Ocean City for special days, you know. Excursion was a special day that helped to boom the business for the train. Also, for Ocean City, also. And, I went one time on the train…The only time I went, that I remember, and, uh, didn’t go too much. You just went once in a while, or maybe you had twenty-five or thirty cents. That’s all you had to spend. I even went when my girlfriend didn’t have but, uh, I believe it was sixty cents one time. And, she didn’t want nothing. She was right economical, that woman is (unintelligible) but now, I don’t know (unintelligible) by now. (unintelligible) my son. But anyway, uh, they didn’t have this new Route 50 that we’ve got now. They didn’t have the 90, uh, bridge way to go into Ocean City and all that’s quite new or not (unintelligible) 50. The old 50, what’s called now the three-forty-six, what’s left of it. It comes by my place. But, you went across the railroad bridge and the passengers, the cars, and the team all on this same bridge. I remember my dad was in this car one time, his Model T, going over there, and the train was coming off and we started going on. We just got started on this railroad bridge. It wasn’t any room. The train started to come to pass. It was just wide enough without the trains for two-way traffic to pass. So, we had to buy a (unintelligible) twenty yards, I guess. Something like that. Twenty-five. And, that’s quite an expense. But, when the ’33 storm came along, that bridge all washed away. So, they didn’t have no way to get in to Ocean City for a while, unless they went way around Delaware and come in that a way. I guess they had (unintelligible) Fenwick Island, somewhere. But, even the road goes from, um, Ocean City proper to Fenwick Island, it was, uh…They just had one way, and storms come along and break that whole concrete grooved (unintelligible). Now, it’s, they fixed it quite different. So, this railroad bridge was quite a, uh, quite a…Something to remember. So, (unintelligible) several outlets to go to Ocean City. You, we’ve got, uh, help progress, so people like Ocean City. So, we got to fix a way for them to go there.
INTERVIEWER: Um, what can you remember about Ocean City, going into Ocean City? What would you do there?
CLINTON: Well, when we, um, Ocean City, uh, was quite a small place compared to now. When I was a boy, they had a pier out there. I believe they’ve got a pier now. Have they not?
INTERVIEWER: Uh huh.
CLINTON: But, this pier, uh, you could go out there (unintelligible) have a lunch. A lot of people went to Ocean City. Drove a, a (unintelligible) or a buggy or a carriage and, uh, maybe ten or twelve-mile distance to Ocean City, and spend the day once in a while. Uh, local people around. But now, it’s a different breed of people that goes, so to speak, from Washington, Baltimore, Virginia, and, uh, two- or three hundred miles it goes. So, anyway, they sit on a pier, and where the, where the parking lot is on the ocean side. Uh, I sit on the benches on the boardwalk and water would splash up, sometimes, on me. The water was that close to the boardwalk. But, since the inlet’s been put there, and this stone, uh…What do you call these stones that they put there?
INTERVIEWER: Uh, jetties.
CLINTON: Jetty! Thank you! (unintelligible) This is built up itself, natural. And, uh, not that I’m smart, but, when, uh, Mayor (unintelligible) had the bulldozer over two or three years ago pushing up sand, uh, the ocean washes it back out. I told a lot of people (unintelligible) it will build itself up. It wouldn’t cost so much money, the city so much money. So, they’re doing that now. ‘Course, uh, I didn’t tell none of them. They didn’t get it from my (unintelligible). But, I just saw how this happened. But, it’s a nice, wide, uh, parking lot there, now. (unintelligible). Just natural built up. They tell me that, that the trend of, uh, of the winds helps, uh, uh, drive the sand south, somewhat. Maybe I’m not making much sense, but, if you build up a jetty, uh, it trends to go in southern direction, more so. It helps build up the beach. So, Ocean City, oh, there wasn’t too many hotels there, uh, back then. The Atlantic Hotel, it’s (unintelligible), I believe (unintelligible) the (unintelligible) is still there or not. But, (unintelligible) two or three hotels I know. Then, uh, Lucky Lindy was way down there by the Carousel. That was the only place down there after you left, uh…What street? Uh, Ocean Proper, maybe. I don’t know how far it went down before Lucky Lindy’s just, just uh, concrete road with no houses, apartments or nothing. (unintelligible) for miles when I was younger in the ‘30’s. But, now, it’s just built up pretty near solid (unintelligible). It’s a big difference (unintelligible) conservation is, uh, trying to work with the beach erosion people. I happen to be on the board to (unintelligible) conservation. We have, uh, uh, discussions about keeping the beach erosion, uh, protect the natural habitat in the, uh, dunes and all. It’s, it’s quite a problem. This one person will build an apartment and another one will come along, and he’ll do something that’s contrary to the law and hurt his neighbor. So, we have to have laws to protect each other, you know. (unintelligible) care about the other fella, but, not so. You’ve got, uh, to watch out for the other fella, too. So, that’s kinda…Ocean City. Before the inlet was cut, we used to take our cars and go down on the beach, right where the inlet is, and drove down south towards Assateague Island, right on the beach, a lot of times. Now, you can’t (unintelligible) since that inlet’s (unintelligible). They used to bring you the fish boats. I’ve been there and seen them come in with fish boats. They had horses to pull these boats up on the shore. Big old horses. I thought that was something great there. They had bigger horses than we had on the farm here. So, that was when I was a boy, back then. Now, they come right into the harbor (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Um, can you tell me a little bit about the, uh, hotels? You mentioned Atlantic Hotel and (unintelligible).
CLINTON: Uh, I don’t know too much about it. Never went to the hotel. We, we didn’t have money to go into town or reason to go. We’d all go to Ocean City and come back. We never stayed in Ocean city all night. Now, if we have a meeting, we, for two or three days, we’ll go and come. But, hotels, they, I guess they’re higher, somewhat like they are now, like they were then, probably. Only, they’re just more of them, now. Then, motels is…We didn’t have no motels then at all. It was just hotels. Like, uh, we had a hotel, two hotels in Berlin. The Atlantic Hotel and the (unintelligible) Hotel. So, we don’t even have neither one of them in Berlin. That’s changed. And, as far as your country stores, they’ve practically gone out, too. Like the hotels gone out, these local towns, a lot of them. (Unintelligible) to the, uh, the Ames’s like, uh, (unintelligible) mall in Ocean City, the mall, Kmart, and different things. So, that’s a big change. The country stores, you go overnight, pretty near overnight. Farmer’s would gather (unintelligible) they’d talk and hour or two. There’s some places to go, and…I used to go once in a while the neighbor would go with me once a week. I didn’t go every night. I didn’t… (Unintelligible) I, I was too tired to sit up and talk, jabber with all the day’s happenings. And the (unintelligible) the news of the community around about.
INTERVIEWER: Um, all right. I wanted to ask you when you were talking a little bit about cars and stuff, what about the first tractors around here?
CLINTON: Oh. Of course there was (unintelligible) that I ever had. We bought one at, uh, (unintelligible) Pittsville. A Demonstrator. Wood (unintelligible), steel wheels. All steel, she was. You had to crank her, and she would, uh, pull two fourteen inch plows. Didn’t have no brakes on her. And, a seven-foot disk, she pulled. I don’t know what horsepower (unintelligible). Anyway, we used that for several years.
INTERVIEWER: About when was this?
CLINTON: This is in ’23, I believe it was. 1923. And (unintelligible) I couldn’t crank the thing, so, I would have to go get the neighbors to help get the thing started. The starting mechanism wasn’t too good, like the Ford is now. Ford’s got a good start mechanism, I think, now. And that was something great, the tractor. Then, they had the International come later. I think it was later. Had some neighbors (unintelligible). We got one later. Or ten, ten-twenty International, I believe it was. And, it was a little smaller tractor. Then, in ’37, I, I, bought a John Deere. Ah, I believe it was a steel wheel, too. And, used that for years and we started that by hand with (unintelligible). It was a two-cylinder job. It was right economical. I bought, uh, kerosene. I come across the slip sometimes (unintelligible) later that hung up. We just had it. Didn’t have a big tank like we do now. A hundred thousand (unintelligible) gallon drum. Oil drum. That’s the tank capacity that I had for kerosene. It burnt kerosene, this tractor. You had a, uh, half a gallon tank of, to hold gas. We (unintelligible) our own gas, and close up the shutters and get her hot and we shift over on kerosene. And, this kerosene was three cents and a half a gallon. Three dollars and a half for a fifty-gallon drum. I believe that’s the best I remember (unintelligible). So, compared to what gas is now, and diesel fuel…Quite, quite a difference in the change in the cost to operate.
INTERVIEWER: Did, uh, well, did all of them run on kerosene (unintelligible)?
CLINTON: Not all of them. You could get some on gas and some just on kerosene, starting on gas. Then, we got to diesel tractors all together, then. The diesel fuel was cheaper than gas. And, companies got to making diesel and farmers got to buying diesels, and…But now, with diesel, I believe, is a little higher than gas. I mean, I saw the other day a dollar twenty-nine for diesel, what I believe I did. So, quite a change in the way we do things now than the way we did when I was a boy. There’s quite a change in the price of things, too.
INTERVIEWER: I wanted to ask you, uh, if you, if you ever went down to Public Landing?
CLINTON: Oh, yes. We, we have a, uh…Farm Bureau Picnic. Farm Bureau (unintelligible) after a while, and they’d have their picnic down there, and, uh, you took care of your cooking down there, and eat, you know. Even go swimming down there. And then, our church would have a, uh, a picnic once a year and we’d go down to Henry’s Grove. We call it Bayside (unintelligible) it’s called now. You can’t go there now. It was open to the public then. So, that was once a year. Sunday school. Then, we had one one time. Several of the children got drowned in ’39. The inlet had been cut out in the, in the bay. They had whole (unintelligible). I seen them. I can see them now in my mind. Hold hands. Eight or ten of them. And, they just walked right off in this inlet where they bridged the bay out. And, they just drowned (unintelligible). Well, the one was six, but another boy went in to get his sister, he drowned, too. So, that was quite (unintelligible). So, we didn’t have no more Sunday school picnics down this local church then.
INTERVIEWER: Um, what about the Pocomoke River? Uh, is there, was there, was there much centered around that?
CLINTON: Not too much. You could go down once in a while to catch a few fish. Pike, catfish. I went one time. Caught a pike, I believe it was, when I was a boy. But, it wasn’t dug at that time, like it is now. Now, it needs re-cleaning again. Our sections needs spots cleaning, so…Weren’t too much, uh, said about the Pocomoke River. We didn’t have too much drainage. On (unintelligible) drains, you didn’t have too much, uh, drainage to this. The ditch that goes through my farm was called Franklin Branch. Uh, the ditch now, it was called…Can’t think of what it used to be called. But anyway, it (unintelligible) never was dug to the, to the river. It just went to Franklin Branch, this ditch that drains all of St. Martins and it was for St. Martins. But, in, uh, ’65, it was completely (unintelligible) to the river. So, we have good drainage around St. Martins, now.
INTERVIEWER: Do you know of any, um, like legends or superstitions a-around this area or anything? Maybe back, uh, in the early part of the century?
CLINTON: Not (unintelligible). Not unless you call…I heard my folks talk about certain houses where they lived. They, they could see on their mantel, like a fireplace mantle, it had glasses sitting up there for (unintelligible), don’t you know. And, It’d lay down on its side and roll. They’d seen them, so (unintelligible). They said it was a fact. They see certain (unintelligible). And then, my wife’s brother said he was going home at night, driving a horse, and he said he looked over (unintelligible) side the carriage, beside the horse, (unintelligible) “Don’t you see that dog?” The other fella didn’t see it, but (unintelligible) so, (unintelligible). They seen signs and things like that, and lights different places. They couldn’t account what they were (unintelligible), so…
INTERVIEWER: All right. Were there any, any really big storms? I know you said, you talked about ’30, ’33. The storm.
CLINTON: That was the biggest storm that we remember. We had some hail storms scattered around all through when I was a boy, I remember. It was certain little (sections) like we still have, in certain sections, in a hail storm. But, that ’33 Storm, that was (unintelligible), it was…I don’t guess how far it went, but it was a big storm that we ever had in, I believe, in my lifetime. Even Hazel, in ’54, was a bad storm, but, uh…It done quite a bit of damage, but, it didn’t do the same damage as the ’33 Storm. Then, we had a ’62 storm, Northeast, and it damaged quite a bit, too, on the shore. That went the whole east coast, I recon, in ’62 Storm did damage (unintelligible) the whole eastern seaboard. Mostly along the coast. Flooding and destroying houses. It might have been one of the, one of the worst (unintelligible). The broadness of it. The ’33, I don’t think went all over the coast. It was more or less in Worcester County and Delmarva, I guess you could call it, the best I remember.
INTERVIEWER: Another thing about, uh, Berlin…When going into Berlin, do you ever remember Jake? Uh, it was an alligator…In Berlin? No? I just…we’ve, we’ve—
CLINTON: No.
INTERVIEWER: --seen some pictures of him. Supposed to be that he’s supposed to live here. I didn’t know if you recalled that or not.
CLINTON: Uh, huh. No. I remember they used to have a beef roasts before election. The one that’s the being elected would have a beef roast and people would go, have a big day, you know, like that. But, they, they didn’t even have all the streets. A lot of them was dirt. Just the main street was, uh, uh, I guess it was stone or (unintelligible) blacktop. And, all the side streets was all dirt. I remember seeing some of them fix some of the streets along over Wainwrights. I remember they fixed that. Had a team with scoops pulling dirt (unintelligible) moving dirt out to put in concrete (unintelligible). All one by hand. I remember this three-forty-six was put down. I was (unintelligible) St. Martins. I know where some of the old roads, the old dirt (unintelligible) roads. And, the new, the three-forty-six, where fifty was in, come out. They cut off some of these corners. Made it a little straighter. Curves, (unintelligible) woods right here, you know. You used to come on this side of the woods, where three-forty-six cuts right through the woods, make it straight. (unintelligible) (with) newer roads (unintelligible) bridge (unintelligible) straighter. We’ve got faster transportation. It requires better roads, straighter roads.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember when they first started paving roads?
CLINTON: (unintelligible) fifty. Little ditch that goes in here in, in this woods here. And, I remember our folks (unintelligible) Sunday night, come walk around this dirt road and they had it boxed up. Same box is right there, now. Square box for the water to run under the new fifty. They stepped across it. When I was little, I, I couldn’t jump across it. I—so, I can remember back (unintelligible) caught up with them. I can remember that when I was a little thing. I think it was about 19-…I forgot exactly. Must be 1912, seemed to me it was. At least I remember (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Um, what about, um, music? Did you listen to much music?
CLINTON: Not too much. We had somebody play the organ at church. That’s about all. And, my oldest sister, she could play the organ or piano. Um, our folks got a piano for them, for her. She’s the only one that learned how to play. So, I didn’t play none. After I, before I got married, I got a mouth organ. I’d play a tune or two. Then, the last ten years, I went up to see my wife’s sister, and her husband give me a mouth organ. And, I went playing it, and now, I can play anything I know the tune of, on that organ. And, last February, (unintelligible), uh, well, about two years ago, my daughter-in-law gave me a little (unintelligible) organ. So, I learned to play that. So, I bought a, a (unintelligible) organ, uh, last February, here, and I learned to play that, now. So, that’s about all the music we had around.
INTERVIEWER: Well, what about radios? When did they first come around?
CLINTON: I don’t know, exactly. But, that was the first entertainment we had in our house. Um, when, uh, Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney fought and Gene Tunney won over Jack Dempsey, I went down to, uh, my brother-in-law’s, uh, Bill Mumford, uh, (unintelligible) had a radio. We didn’t have one. (unintelligible) hear the fight (unintelligible) heard it. I don’t know when…That must have been around ’28 or somewheres in that period. I think I was still going to school. And, uh, Gene Tunney won. And, we went down. It was after midnight we got back. We got stuck over there before we got back to Trappe. I had pried out and pushed out (unintelligible). We got home after a while. So, radio was, I guess (unintelligible). There might have been a few, ’28, well, he one then. Not too many. (unintelligible) television was way later. And, uh, that was something great—radio was. And, (unintelligible) neighbors had one, you know. We listened at it like, I guess we did, a lot of them did, when the television came out. They go and see a picture. Like, see them.
INTERVIEWER: Uh, what sort of programs were on the radio? What sort of stuff, fights, I guess?
CLINTON: Well—
INTERVIEWER: Sports?
CLINTON: Sports. We didn’t have much sports then as we do now. And, uh, you’d have a little bit of music, best I remember. And, news. You looked for the news on the radio a certain time. Uh, every night, the 6:00 news. During the war, I remember we, uh, World War II, we had news (with) Gabriel, Gabriel (Peter). He was on the news. Commentators on this station that we could get. So, I don’t remember too much. I didn’t…And, you’d have, uh, different programs. Not like the soap operas, quite like. Different programs. I can’t even remember what they had. Like a story they carried or play or story or something like that.
INTERVIEWER: Well, what other sort of entertainment did you have? Did you go to movies much?
CLINTON: Yeah. When, after I got up, oh, about twenty-year-old, maybe sixteen. Not too much sixteen. Maybe, uh, about eighteen. The best I can remember. I must have been around eighteen before I went to the movies…sixteen or eighteen. And then, when I was going to see (unintelligible) with my girl, we’d go maybe once a week to the movies, and, they cost thirty-five cents apiece to get into the movies, then. You saw some news on the movies, then. That’s about the only entertainment we got except going to church, and some special occasion that the community’d have. Farm Bureau never come out ‘til later. (unintelligible) farm (unintelligible) first. I don’t guess when they come in (unintelligible).
END OF INTERVIEW