Jester, Irma (1900-1994) |
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
|
Interviewee: |
Irma Jester (1900-1994) |
| Interviewer: |
LaVerne Tingle |
| Date of interview: |
1982 April |
| Length of interview: |
26 min |
| Transcribed by: |
Sylvia Hamilton |
| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
Education
School
Teacher
Transportation
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Worcester County (Md.)—Women’s History
Corporate Terms:
American Legion Auxiliary
Firemen’s Auxiliary
Location Terms:
Berlin (Md.)
Ocean City (Md.)
Interview Begin
INTERVIEWER: Miss, could I have your full name?
IRMA: My name is Irma Jones Jester.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, your address?
IRMA: Berlin, MD.
INTERVIEWER: And could you give me your parent’s names?
IRMA: My father’s name was Larry Jones, Larry E. Jones and my mother’s name was Lily, Lily (unintelligible) M. Jones.
INTERVIEWER: And how about your grandparents?
IRMA: My grandfather Jones was named Eli Chester Jones and my grandmother Jones was named Clarissa Jane Jones.
INTERVIEWER: Ok then could you …
IRMA: Now, do you want my grandparents on the other side?
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
IRMA: My grandfather’s name was Timothy Rayne and my grandmother’s name was Martha Rayne.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, now can you give me a little whatever you can remember about your childhood?
IRMA: Well I was born in Powellville, MD in Wicomico County and I lived there until I was 6 years old. I moved when I was 6 years old to Berlin and I’ve been there most all the time since. I grew up in the little town til I was 6 years old. I was in Powellville right on the main street. It wasn't a village, it was just a group of houses and I had a very pleasant childhood. My father and mother were both very attentive to me and I had grandparents who were very fond of me so I had a very happy childhood.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, do you have any brothers and sisters?
IRMA: I had two brothers, one was named Ira Lee and he died when he was 18 months old. My other brother was named Louis Elwood and he fought in WWII in the Battle of the Bulge and was killed in Holland while defending the border between Holland and Germany. He was killed in action.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, did you have any jobs or chores at home?
IRMA: No, I did not have very many jobs at home. I went to school and when I came back from school my mother usually had dinner prepared or ready to prepare. She never asked me to do very many things. Today I wish I had learned more because it was very difficult for me when I got married. I didn’t do very much at home as far as chores were concerned. Maybe I would dust or help a little bit. I did very little at home.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about any recreation like did you swim or skate?
IRMA: No I’m not that athletic.
INTERVIEWER: Oh
IRMA: All my leisure time was spent in reading or doing handwork or crocheting or knitting or some kind of handwork. I’m not athletic.
INTERVIEWER: How about … ?
IRMA: I used to play a little ball in school but not to say very much.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about church? (unintelligible)
IRMA: I went to the Baptist Church when I was in Powellville when I was 6 years old. I moved to Berlin and my next door neighbor was a Presbyterian and she asked me to go to Sunday School with her to the Presbyterian Church. And so I’ve been a Presbyterian ever since I started this church and when I was 13 I joined the Presbyterian Church, the Buckingham Presbyterian Church in Berlin and I’ve been a member of that church ever since. I’m now an elder in that church and I’ve been an elder for about 20 years.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about your community life? Did you have any major events (unintelligible)?
IRMA: I’m very active in all types, I belong to the Worcester County Women’s Club. I belong to the Berlin-Whaleyville Homemaker’s Club. I was the first president of the American Legion Auxiliary in Berlin. I was the first president of the Firemen’s Auxiliary in Ocean City. I belong to the AARP and the Maryland State Teachers Association and I also belong to a couple of clubs in my church so I’ve been very active in all kinds of church, civic and service clubs. I’m also a member of the (unintelligible) club, Berlin, Ocean City (unintelligible) Club.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about when you were younger. How was life there like the police, businesses were there many? Businesses there?
IRMA: Where? In Berlin?
INTERVIEWER: Yes (unintelligible).
IRMA: We at one time didn’t have but one policeman in the town and that seemed to be enough at that time. But today there is need for more because the crime rate has risen, but at the time I was growing up a person could go out at night alone and many times I’ve walked from my church home after a church meeting, never thought anything about it, whatever, it felt perfectly safe. Today I wouldn’t dare do it.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about the population of your class when you went to school? (unintelligible)
IRMA: Oh (chuckle) that was I had a very small class. We were only eight. I graduated with a class of eight at the old Buckingham School was right where the post office is now and I graduated from Buckingham... started school there, 1st grade graduated from there and we had not nearly as many advantages as you have today.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how did you get around? (unintelligible)
IRMA: How did I get around? Well, my father had a horse and carriage and he would take me places and then when I grew up til about graduation at 18, most of my friends had horse and carriages. My boyfriend would take me to parties or to dances and places of entertainment by horse and carriage.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, when you went out with him, were there a lot of places to go?
IRMA: Oh no, there were not many places to go. Most of the places were church events. We would have maybe a person in the class have a party or we would have picnics on Sunday afternoons or a group of us would go take long walks in the country. But there were very few places but we enjoyed it and we didn’t seem to miss it that time.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, do you remember the Public Landing the Farmer’s Day? (unintelligible)
IRMA: Oh yes, yes my father and mother used to take me to Public Landing and you could wade far out into the bay and there was a bathhouse where you could change your clothes and put on a bathing suit but sometimes I didn’t even have a real bathing suit. My mother would put an old dress on me and an old pair of panties and I would go bathe in that. I didn’t have a real bathing suit like they have today, but you could wade way out in the water at Public Landing quite far out and we used to wade out there and have a good time and then we come up at lunch time. There was a pavilion there and it didn’t go all the way to the end of the pier and then we’d come up the pavilion where it had benches and tables and we would eat our lunch there and then in the afternoon we’d go back in the water again. It was a lot of fun.
INTERVIEWER: Were there many (unintelligible)?
IRMA: Oh yes, it was a big day. They had what they call Farmer’s Day. Farmer’s Day, I think that’s what it was called, and all the farmers (unintelligible) all around would go on that day. It was a big day.
INTERVIEWER: And you all went in your father’s horse and carriage?
IRMA: Yes, my father and mother would take me in their horse and carriage.
INTERVIEWER: You didn’t have any friends to take along?
IRMA: Not then no, that’s when I was younger.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, what about the Red Hills?
IRMA: Huh? The Red Hills? I don’t know anything about that.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, can you tell me something about Assateague?
IRMA: Well, I didn’t know Assateague. I had never been on Assateague til since I’ve been married. I didn’t know Assateague when I was small.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about the Pocomoke River?
IRMA: Not in the early days when I was young, I didn’t go. But I’ve been since then on the boat on the Pocomoke River. You know on the boat? But that’s been since I’ve been an adult.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever visit any shipyards?
IRMA: No, not when I was young.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, did you have any superstitions or legends about anything?
IRMA: Oh yes. We would go down the river and then we always used to hear about Patty Cannon. She would steal slaves and put them in an attic, but that was right on the border between Delaware and Maryland. And just right before you get to Snow Hill there’s a grove of trees, well it’s really a little woods and they used to call that Hangman’s Woods and at that time if a person were going to be hanged he was hanged in that woods there was they’d built a platform there and that was the punishment they gave for people if they killed somebody or something he was hanged.
INTERVIEWER: What type of music did you listen to? (unintelligible)
IRMA: Music? I always loved hymns and I like the easy listening music. I’m not a fan of, well, I like jazz pretty well, but I do not like rock. I don’t like rock in any form, but I like easy listening. I like jazz and I like popular music.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever ride the railroad?
IRMA: Oh yes. It was a great day when I got to go to Ocean City and my father and mother would drive. First we lived in Powellville. This was in my early days, well after I was about 10. I lived in Powellville again for about a couple of years, but most of the time I lived in Berlin. My father and mother used to bring us to Berlin. We would drive a horse and carriage from Powellville to Berlin and then we would get on the train and we would ride to Ocean City and the train was very slow and some of the smoke would puff out the smoke stack and you’d have to keep the windows down in the train. If you didn’t, your face would be covered in soot. It went so slowly that some of the boys would get off the train and run alongside the train and then get back on again.
INTERVIEWER: How about steamboats?
IRMA: Oh yes, I’ve ridden a steamboat. I used to visit some friends in Carbonic, Virginia and I would get on the steamboat in Baltimore and stay on the steamboat all night and then get off in Carbonic and I’d visit my friends.
INTERVIEWER: What was your first car like?
IRMA: My first car? I didn’t have a car until I was married and my husband had a Maxwell car.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember the Pocomoke Fairground?
IRMA: No, I never attended the Pocomoke Fair. There was a fair in Salisbury. I used to go to the Salisbury Fair.
INTERVIEWER: And do you remember the Snow Hill Race Course?
IRMA: Well, I never attended.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about the Berlin storefront resident, Jake?
IRMA: Oh the alligator, yes I remember him. He was in Farlow’s Drugstore and we would go by the window and watch him open his mouth and it seemed to me when he opened his mouth half his head was open and it was all red in there and yes we would watch him from the outside but we didn’t get near him. Yeah, Jake was an alligator.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, could you tell me the things you did when you went to Ocean City?
IRMA: Oh, the biggest thing I guess was riding the merry-go-round. When I was about 16 probably there was a post you’d put your bathing suit on and there was a post that was sunk in the ground right near the boardwalk then there was another post way out in the ocean quite far out in the ocean and there was rope connecting those 2 posts and the people who were afraid of the water and didn’t know how to swim would hold onto that rope and you could jump up and down in the waves but you didn’t let go of the ropes.
INTERVIEWER: Were there a lot of people?
IRMA: Oh yes, there'd be a great many people there, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, was the boardwalk there?
IRMA: Oh yes, the boardwalk was very short then. Today it’s about I think three miles or something like that but it was a very short boardwalk then. Today a great deal of the boardwalk is not boardwalk, it’s cement. But at that time, the boardwalk was made of boards and it didn’t extend very far to the north.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about the houses in Ocean City? Were they similar to the ones now?
IRMA: Oh no, there just weren’t very many when I first went to Ocean City. When I was about 16 it was a great thrill for us to walk in the sand all the way up to the Catholic home. We called it the Catholic home, there was no paved road that went up there and you really had done a big feat if you walked all the way up to the Catholic home and the stone road was not built until quite some time after that and there were few hotels but there were no high rises that’s only been about the last ten years.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about Indians? Did you hear anything that was talked about Indians?
IRMA: Well, I know there is an Indian burial ground near Parsonsburg and many relics have been found around there. There used to be a big sand quarry just about three miles from here just on the other side of Stephen Decatur and many, many Indian relics have been found around there.
INTERVIEWER: Ok, how about the Iron Furnace?
IRMA: I haven’t been to the Iron Furnace. I used to go there when I was young but I haven't since it’s been restored.
INTERVIEWER: Could you tell me about your teaching license?
IRMA: I graduated when I was 18 and at that time a teacher student did not have to go to college. I graduated in June and I was given a school the following September. I went to summer school that summer at Ocean City and at that time you were issued certificates if you took certain courses you would get a third grade certificate and if you took music and art in addition to the other courses you’d get a second grade certificate. I wasn’t that well educated in music. I always liked art but I decided to take the exam because I wouldn't lose anything if I failed but I passed and I was issued a second grade certificate. I started teaching at West Ocean City School in September 1918. I had 50 pupils in one room school and I had grades from 1 to 6. It was very difficult but most of the children were very cooperative and I taught there for 2 years.
When I first went into school, in the back of the room was a shelf with a pail and we had to go out back of the school and pump water and take it in the school in the pail and there was one dipper and everybody used the same dipper. I was not satisfied with this so I had an ice cream social one night. I made ice cream and all the parents came in and I made about twenty dollars on the social. I took that money and bought a little fountain. It was a five gallon glass jug turned upside down on a little instrument or something and you could press the bottom and water would come out and I insisted that every child bring in his own cup to school and we had nails on the wall and the children hang their cup on that. Then I also answered an advertisement for soap and I had 50 little cakes of soap given to me so I had the children to wash their hands and drink out of their own cup and the pump was in back of school and we had to prime it so you always had to leave a little bit of water in the bucket to pour down the pump so it would catch the water and it catches water and it had to be primed.
Now later on, I taught at that school for 2 years and I was marrying in June of 1920. I didn’t expect to teach school anymore, but in December of that year a teacher in Ocean City resigned and the Board of Education asked me to substitute. I substituted the rest of that year. The next year I didn’t take a school again. I still didn’t intend to teach anymore. In January, a teacher was married and the Board of Education asked me to fill out that term. This school was down in at the junction as you go to South Point in Ocean City right down Sinepuxent and this was a very bad, very tough year. There was no smooth road leading from Ocean City to Sinepuxent and the road’s commission was building a road but they did not have any hard surface yet and it was high in the middle and sloping on each side and that winter was a very hard one and many times I would slide in the ditch and there was a black boy that lived in Ocean City and there was a school for black children just before you got to my school and this boy would ride to school with me and I would put him out in his school and I would go onto my school and many times he and I had to get the car out of the ditch best way we could so Leonard helped me a great deal--his name was Leonard--then because the road was rounding and one time a big truck pulled me out of a ditch because if it was wet you’d slide right into the ditch because it was rounded on the top. One very heavy snowstorm, I was afraid to go from Ocean City down to Sinepuxent and I drove to Berlin in my car, rented a horse and carriage, and then drove down to Sinepuxent to my school but when I got down there my oldest girl had called class... I was a little late...and she had the 1st grade children up into class and was teaching them their lessons and the room was as quiet as if I had been there.
The children used to stand in front of the class. There was a recitation bench, it was just a bench, and you’d call the class up and if they memorized the lesson they did fine, most of them the things the teacher did then was to hear them say things I think most of their parents did a great deal of teaching because there was so many you couldn’t give very much individual attention but I loved it. I was given credit when I retired from 46 yrs. of teaching and I ended up 13 yrs. of that at Stephen Decatur and after I retired in 1967 and I went back in ‘68 and ‘69 and substituted and I’ve been connected to the school ever since. I was the first sponsor at The National Honor Society at Stephen Decatur and I went back this year and presented pins to the honor students. I also was invited back to judge an (unintelligible) contest both at Stephen Decatur and at the Carousel in Ocean City which was a state affair.
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible)
End of Interview