Merrill, Allen (1893-1986) |
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
|
Interviewee: |
Allen D. Merrill (1893-1986) |
| Interviewer: |
Katherine P. Fisher |
| Date of interview: |
1981 February 18 |
| Length of interview: |
1 hour 30 mins |
| Transcribed by: |
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| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
Farming
Transportation
Pocomoke City (Md.)—Fire 1922
Worcester County (Md.)—Education
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Location Terms:
Pitts Creek (Md.)
Pocomoke City (Md.)
Interview Begin
INTERVIEWER: We have to start off…can you hear me?
ALLEN: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: If you can't tell me, and I'll speak up. You are Allen Merrill and this is an interview with you in your home February 18th, 1981. Mr. Merrill how old are you, so we will be able to judge what you are talking about, if you don’t mind.
ALLEN: I'm 87 last October.
INTERVIEWER: 87. My goodness and a very young 87. I want to be as active as you are.
ALLEN: That's what a lot of people say.
INTERVIEWER: Yes indeed. Now what I would like to do is talk to you about where you were born, growing up around here and then talking some about what you remember about the early life here, and then about your store too. You said you born down by Pitts Creek.
ALLEN: I was born 4 miles down on the Pitts Creek Road. About 6 miles there down to the church.
INTERVIEWER: So your 2 miles this side of the church. Were your parents farmers?
ALLEN: Nope. They were raised here. My grandfather was raised here.
INTERVIEWER: Did they have a farm?
ALLEN: They had a farm. He had slaves. My grandfather did. My father used to talk about the slaves. He remembered.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember anything that he talked about the slaves, whether, how were they treated or anything like that.
ALLEN: Oh my grandfather was good to them. He wasn't mean to them anyway, because they were good. And they did anything he asked them to do.
INTERVIEWER: He must have had a really big farm.
ALLEN: It was a big farm. See he divided it into three. Three different farms.
INTERVIEWER: What sort of crops did you grow?
ALLEN: When I was growing up: I was on the farm until I was about 18, and they had wheat, corn and potatoes.
INTERVIEWER: Potatoes were big around here, weren’t they?
ALLEN: Yes, yes. There was right many potatoes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you raise animals?
ALLEN: Yes, we always kept, well we didn't raise them to sell.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. For your own use.
ALLEN: Had cows for milk and butter.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have pigs?
ALLEN: Yes, my father had 5 or 6 pigs, and you would butcher before Christmas, had plenty meat in the meat house.
INTERVIEWER: You had a meat house?
ALLEN: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Oh you did. Great. Did you have a spring house? For your butter and milk.
ALLEN: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Good. If you had a spring house, was it a spring up or a spring that flowed through?
ALLEN: No, no. We had to put water in it.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. But it's dug down into the ground.
ALLEN: Yes. You had an open well and you'd draw water out of the well and pour it in a long trough where we had the milk.
INTERVIEWER: Things like this, which you grew up with, people my age we don't know anything about it. And that's part of the reason that we want to talk to you, so can tell us about these things.
ALLEN: Well I can tell you things about things like that.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have chores to do on the farm?
ALLEN: Yes I did.
INTERVIEWER: Do you want to tell some about them?
ALLEN: When I got in from school, I filled the wood box, for the next day, and the night and the next day, and when I got older I had to milk cows. Of course I was awful young when I started milking cows, I was always sorry for that. Has a good size pasture, and I had to go get the cows up and milk them, night and the morning.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, you milked them twice a day.
ALLEN: Yes, in the night and the morning.
INTERVIEWER: I didn't know that. Did you have to buy things foodwise or did you generally eat what you had?
ALLEN: You didn't buy very much back in those days. We always had a barrel of flour. We raised wheat, and we always had a barrel of flour, had the wheat ground and had ground flour, and had about half a barrel of meal, we had a what you call a pantry kitchen, where you had a side pantry and these barrels were stored. And had a half barrel of meal, and they had the molasses jug, and a gallon of molasses, and we had buckwheat.
INTERVIEWER: Oh how wonderful. I love that.
ALLEN: People had plenty those days. They didn't have money.
INTERVIEWER: But you weren't hungry either were you?
ALLEN: You wasn't hungry.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have any apple trees, peach trees?
ALLEN: We had a big orchard. We didn't have for sale, but we had apples, from the time the apples first started till the freezin' weather.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember what kind you grew? I asked this because I was talking to an other lady who lived at Mt. Ephraim, near Public Landing and she remembered, but I don't. I don't remember what she said.
ALLEN: We had wine saps, and it’s been so long, a good while ago. My father used to pick them in the fall, before it got to cold and he’d store them in the back room we had in a barrel. And we'd have apples pretty near all winter.
INTERVIEWER: Oh how nice. Did you make apple juice or cider?
ALLEN: My father always made a keg of cider, for cider vinegar. We had cider, we'd drink cider awhile and it’d get hard and then it would be vinegar.
INTERVIEWER: I had never thought of that. Did you have chickens?
ALLEN: Chickens, ducks.
INTERVIEWER: Oh you had ducks too.
ALLEN: Guineas.
INTERVIEWER: Guinea fowl. How many were there in your family, on the farm? Your mother and then •••
ALLEN: It was kind of a sad story about my mother. My father was elected to Annapolis Legislature in 1904, and that's the very year my sister died. He was up during the winter you know…that’s what makes me mad at myself, I know these people, but I just can't think.
INTERVIEWER: That's just fine, don’t worry about that. It will come to you later and we’ll add it.
ALLEN: Onley. Mr. Jim Onley, did you ever hear of him?
INTERVIEWER: I've heard of him, yes.
ALLEN: Morris, that was their grandfather. And my father was there the same year he was there.
INTERVIEWER: Goodness. That was quite an honor to be elected.
ALLEN: Yes. And my mother was taken that year. She got where she couldn't remember any thing, we couldn't keep her in the home, because she wouldn't stay there. It's sad, I know. I hate to even mention it. But it's true. Of course I never knew mother, hardly.
INTERVIEWER: I guess you didn't, did you. You had how many brothers?
ALLEN: I had 2 brothers. One was Marvin, he was a carpenter, and Bill was in the [inaudible].
INTERVIEWER: Now were your brothers older than you or younger?
ALLEN: One was older and one was younger.
INTERVIEWER: You were in the middle.
ALLEN: I was in the middle. I lost a sister a year after I was born. She was only about 6 months old. Just a baby.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have pets on the farm? Like dogs and cats?
ALLEN: Yes. We always had pets.
INTERVIEWER: Did you use cats [inaudible]?
ALLEN: Billy goat.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have a billy goat? Oh my, did he ever do what billy goats are supposed to do?
ALLEN: My father fixed us up a little wagon and harness, and we used to drive him down, we had a mailbox where they delivered mail, and we had from here about half to the mailbox, almost, and we would hook that little goat to the cart and we'd go down and get the mail, and they'd sit in the cart and he'd pull us down there. And he'd walk, he could hardly get along going down, but you'd turn around and come back he'd run.
INTERVIEWER: Where did your father take his wheat and corn to have them ground? Into flour and meal. Where would he go?
ALLEN: To the mill here in town. Eagles Mill, it was Eagles Mill then.
INTERVIEWER: Alright, it's still there. Where did you all go to church?
Went to church at Pitts Creek.
INTERVIEWER: Went to Pitts Creek. They didn't have Sunday School, or did they?
ALLEN: Yes, yes. My father was a Superintendent of Sunday School. We had to go to church, even when we were small.
INTERVIEWER: I was going to ask that, if you spent a lot of time in church.
ALLEN: We had to go to church. I joined church when I was about 12, I guess. Down there at Pitts Creek, my brothers did too. We were baptized in the Pocomoke River.
INTERVIEWER: Were you really?
ALLEN: That's a fact.
INTERVIEWER: Oh I didn't know that.
ALLEN: That's how they baptized you back then. In the Pocomoke River, down there at Cedar Hall.
INTERVIEWER: Right, I know where that is. Now would they do this in the summer or [inaudible]?
ALLEN: In the fall. They were probably having a meeting a big too-do-revival, to get people to join church.
INTERVIEWER: Have them baptized right in the river. Speaking of the river, when you were still growing up, you know on the farm, did you to out on the river much, or did you have any contact with the river?
ALLEN: My father used to fish right much. He had a long net, a seine, we called it, and he'd go down the Pocomoke River, down there at Cedar Hall, and fish all down the river, almost to the mouth of the river and he used to catch, lots of times 8 or 10 great big shad.
INTERVIEWER: If he caught a lot of fish, did you have them to salt down for the winter?
ALLEN: He'd salt them down. I didn't care for them. He always liked them salted fish. He'd salt down some fish and he'd give the neighbors some and maybe somebody would buy it, some of them. I know him to sell a great big shad for a quarter. That's a fact.
INTERVIEWER: You couldn't even find one that big now.
ALLEN: Buck Shad, the smallest one would bring a dollar or so.
INTERVIEWER: Yes it will. My goodness. Where did you go to school? Where was the closest school for you all to attend?
ALLEN: It was between the church, the Baptist Church, the Pitts Creek Church, and where I lived. We went between my grandfather's farm, since he had a lane to the school. The school was down there, It was called, Pitts Creek School, it was called Merrill School, near about everybody down there was Merrill then.
INTERVIEWER: I guess there were a lot of Merrills right there, weren't there?
ALLEN: Nearly all of them were Merrills.
INTERVIEWER: And the card that he is referring to is a picture of the school there, which we will have in our files.
ALLEN: The teacher was Miss Alice Burton.
INTERVIEWER: Miss Alice Burton.
ALLEN: [Inaudible]… Does that ring a bell to you?
INTERVIEWER: No, I'm not up on teachers yet. I'm working toward it.
ALLEN: She was a sister to Mrs. George Evans.
INTERVIEWER: No.
ALLEN: That don't ring a bell either. It's to far back for you. She was my first teacher.
INTERVIEWER: Was She? It was a one room school.
ALLEN: One room school. 6 grades, the highest that it got.
INTERVIEWER: Then from there they came into Pocomoke if they were going to continue. Did you travel much? Like going to, now this is before you had the store you know we'll take the early years.
ALLEN: No, not much. I stayed home and Tom, my brother, my youngest brother, after he passed, he graduated school here in town. And he left to, Oakland, to a business college. That's where I fell down, I didn't get any further than 7th grade in school, and I had to work on the farm, my father had the farm and somebody had to do it. So I had to quit school when I was in the 7th grade.
INTERVIEWER: Well you had something else that had to be done. Did you have horses that you drove to school, or did you walk?
ALLEN: We walked to school.
INTERVIEWER: You walked.
ALLEN: It was about three-quarters of a mile.
INTERVIEWER: Oh that's not bad. Did the teacher board with different families?
ALLEN: Yes, the teachers board there at Pitts Creek. I remember 5 or 6 different teachers, and they all boarded at one place. One house, that was Frank Merrill’s, he always boarded the teachers. That was about three hundred yards from the school.
INTERVIEWER: Oh how nice. That made it nice for her, didn't it?
ALLEN: Actually my oldest brother married a schoolteacher, it wasn't the girl that taught me.
INTERVIEWER: Did he really. Oh my goodness. In the summertime, what did you do for fun? I know you didn't have a lot of time, but kids always find time for fun.
ALLEN: My uncles’ children, it wasn't very far, about from here to downtown, far from the park, we would get together Saturday afternoons, of course other times we had school, or work at other times and we'd get together and play ball. Had big pastures there and we'd play baseball, and we had a big time, of course they got a little old, we had gunning a lot. Several of us would get together, wouldn't go by ourselves, and get dogs and go hunting.
INTERVIEWER: Did you hunt, when you hunted it was for good, and you'd bring home [inaudible]?
ALLEN: Rabbits, mostly.
INTERVIEWER: Did you go duck hunting or goose hunting?
ALLEN: No.
INTERVIEWER: You didn't do that. What about deer?
ALLEN: No. I was always afraid to hunt deer, too dangerous
INTERVIEWER: I agree. It's too dangerous today too, as many people come down here. What did you do in the winter? Was there any place you could ice skate?
ALLEN: Yes, we had places to skate. Down on Wagram Pond. It’s called Big Mill, then. We used to go down there and skate Saturday afternoon, Sunday, Sunday afternoon, in the evening sometimes, go down there after school.
INTERVIEWER: And build a bonfire.
ALLEN: Yes. My father let me have one of the horses and we had a rope cart. I don't know if you know what that is or not, something like a Sulky, a two wheeled cart, that's what we would go down there in. We had a good time.
INTERVIEWER: You did didn't you. You really did.
ALLEN: Altogether different than the kids now.
INTERVIEWER: Right. What would you come into Pocomoke for, when you were on the farm? Besides fun.
ALLEN: Fun most likely. Get a little candy. Sometimes meet people, that we knew in the neigh borhood.
INTERVIEWER: Up until the time you were 18 or so, was down town, were you allowed to go down into downtown Pocomoke, where the [inaudible]?
ALLEN: You were perfectly safe anywhere in Pocomoke back in those days. My father knew just about everybody. Bill Schofield was in the family, and he had a big General Store, and he used to go there and do his shopping. He sold boots and shoes. Anything that you wanted to buy.
INTERVIEWER: Did you buy your clothes ready-made or were they made for you?
ALLEN: Mother made…[inaudible]. But after that we had to buy them.
INTERVIEWER: That's what I was thinking. Girls’ clothes are so much easier to make, than boys. Did your father remarry?
ALLEN: No. We had a woman keep house for us, for several years, in the meantime had 3 different ones. They were real good to us kids, and they'd get tired after a while.
INTERVIEWER: Well with three boys, that's about enough to tire you out.
ALLEN: It got where it was just a few of us after a while. My father built a house on our farm for my oldest brother, and he got married and he lived down there. They all lived right there, together.
INTERVIEWER: Thinking about Pocomoke now, what do you remember about the ship building industry?
ALLEN: Ship building?
INTERVIEWER: Weren't they building boats down here?
ALLEN: Shipyard here? I remember when they used to have shipyard and they would work on the boats, and they would launch them.
INTERVIEWER: Where were the shipyards?
ALLEN: Right down this street.
INTERVIEWER: Right down the end of Walnut Street. Like where Adkins Company is, down along in there?
ALLEN: Right down past that.
INTERVIEWER: Who was employed by the shipyard?
ALLEN: Captain Jimmy Tulle was the head of it. He had the shipbuilding contractor and he hired different carpenters. I guess he had 25 men working down there. He had a big business there at one time.
INTERVIEWER: Were there many black people employed along there?
ALLEN: Not too many. There weren’t too many around to tell you the truth.
INTERVIEWER: I was going to ask that too. There weren’t that many in town?
ALLEN: No. Most I knew were older. They were the good old country people.
INTERVIEWER: Country colored people.
ALLEN: We thought as much of them as white people, almost. ‘Cause they were mannerly, and good. In the summertime they would help on the farm.
INTERVIEWER: when did you decide to go into business? What brought that on?
ALLEN: Well after I got 18, my father got so he wasn’t able to carry the farm on so, he decided to sell it, and he moved into town with my sister here on Second Street. That’s where my granddaughter is now.
INTERVIEWER: I was going to ask if that… [inaudible].
ALLEN: I did most of the farming the last few years. He’d do a little hoe work. But with the team, I had to do most all of that. So I thought it was no use for me to try to hold the farm, stay on the farm.
INTERVIEWER: Were you married at this time?
ALLEN: No.
INTERVIEWER: You didn’t have time, did you?
ALLEN: No, I didn't have time to get married. I did not even have a girl then. After I moved to town, I did some carpenter work.
INTERVIEWER: I can see where you get your carpentry from.
ALLEN: I worked on 3 or 4 buildings downtown. As a carpenter, and I started to work at the garage, Halls Garage. That's an automobile place…[inaudible] Garage. And I worked there 2 or 3 years. Started there for 12 dollars a week, and the salaries here then weren't anything.
INTERVIEWER: I was getting ready to say. That was probably alright, wasn't it?
ALLEN: Yes, I thought that was…[inaudible].
INTERVIEWER: Fair wages.
ALLEN: Yes, I paid 5 dollars a week board, paid my sister 5 dollars a week, I board with her, and worked there for about three years, I guess it was. Then this place of business downtown was for sale and my sister's husband was - a store hand, he worked in Callahans, and J.H. Merrills, and all those places, and he was then working for Callahans and this place was for sale, and he said, how about buying it and we'll go in together, and you take care of the grocery store and I'll still hold my job…and so that's what he did.
INTERVIEWER: Now what year was that?
ALLEN: That was 1920.
INTERVIEWER: 1920. The one with the advertisement.
ALLEN: My brother worked in Wilmington; he was bookkeeper there in Wilmington. His health was not to good, he believed he would like to come down here and he'd take my brother-in-law’s interest and we went in business together.
INTERVIEWER: And he could take care of the books and leave all that…[inaudible].
ALLEN: I was there 41-years and he was there 40-years. In the store, and we sold that to Johnny Taylor.
INTERVIEWER: Who is Norma Lee's husband, okay, that's what I was thinking. Where was the store located?
ALLEN: On Clark Avenue, do you know where the dispensary is? Downtown.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I can picture where that is.
ALLEN: Do you know where Matthew Lankford's store right on the corner…. Well it's right in between there.
INTERVIEWER: Right in between there. What kinds of things did you sell?
ALLEN: We carried a whole line of groceries and meats. The best, we carried the best quality you could buy. We had people to buy all their groceries from us and buy our meats. And we have people now that meet me on the street and say my Mr. Merrill, I wish you had that business now, so we could get some of that good meat. We carried Western steer beef all the time.
INTERVIEWER: Did you really. Did you butcher?
ALLEN: I did the butchering.
INTERVIEWER: You did the butchering? Oh my, did you have sawdust?
ALLEN: They butchered the livestock.
INTERVIEWER: Oh no I mean cut meat. Did you have sawdust on the floor?
ALLEN: Sawdust? Yes.
INTERVIEWER: I can remember a butcher shop at Ocean City, Mr. Laws, when I was little he was still butchering and that always impressed me, the sawdust on the floor.
ALLEN: If crumbs of beef dropped on the floor, it would keep from sticking to the floor.
INTERVIEWER: Where did you get your meat from?
ALLEN: We got from Eskay, mostly.
INTERVIEWER: Did it come in on the train or truck?
ALLEN: When I first started it came on a train, and then we got it from a truck, Eskay truck would come down here, Swift Truck, Company. He had that and Salisbury and they'd ship here from Salisbury in a truck.
INTERVIEWER: Back when you first started in business, say 1920 to 1925, what were prices running? This is always fun to compare, because people never believe that things were that inexpensive.
ALLEN: Butter at 28 cents a pound, I remember that, sugar was 6 cents a pound, and we'd sell lard at 12 cents a pound. I did go to Baltimore with my father, he had, his sister lived in Baltimore. And I was 15, and we got on the steamboat down here at Cedar Hall and went to Baltimore, and we got to Saxis Island.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, because they went south, didn't they?
ALLEN: Yes, yes. About night I remember getting off and walking that long boardwalk, up on the…[inaudible]. We got to Baltimore the next morning. About 6 o'clock. Left here at 9 o' clock in the morning and got there 6 the next morning.
INTERVIEWER: Were there sleeping rooms on the steamboat and everything?
ALLEN: Oh yes. Most of them.
INTERVIEWER: And the food? Did they have food?
ALLEN: Oh yes.
INTERVIEWER: Was it good?
ALLEN: Yes it was.
INTERVIEWER: I like food.
ALLEN: Yes, they had good food back in those days, too.
INTERVIEWER: What are your impressions of Baltimore, when you got there with your father?
ALLEN: My father had been there several times. […] And we went up to my aunts, his sister, she lived in an apartment up there, on the second floor. One thing I remember, I got a new pair of shoes before I took this trip, it was in the summertime, it was hot, and those shoes burnt my feet up. I thought I'd […]. After I got up there I went barefoot most of the time. The people, that my father's sister rented from, she got me her shoes to wear. I'll never forget that. I was just 15. And I wore her shoes all the time.
INTERVIEWER: But they were better than yours, weren't they?
ALLEN: Yes, I couldn't stand it, I'd throw them away if I could. Didn't have but one pair.
INTERVIEWER: Did you travel on the train at all?
ALLEN: Oh yes, we went to Ocean City, on the train.
INTERVIEWER: Did you go to Ocean City much? Let's say before you had your store?
ALLEN: Not too often.
INTERVIEWER: Like once a year or 2 or 3 times a summer?
ALLEN: Yes, something like that.
INTERVIEWER: Because that took fairly long, didn't it, from here?
ALLEN: Yes. That was an all-day trip. They used to run an Excursion on the train. You'd get the train down here at the station, and it'd take all day for it to go to Ocean City, and back.
INTERVIEWER: When you went to Ocean City did you go swimming in the Ocean?
ALLEN: Yes, yes. We used to go on the beach there.
INTERVIEWER: I talked to several people, mostly ladies, who weren't allowed to go in the ocean. You know when they got there they said no, they were not permitted, that the ocean was too rough for them. So I always ask that. Do you remember your first car, or was it your father's first car, whichever one.
ALLEN: My first car. Yes, 1917 Ford. Ford Touring Car, 1917. And we lived on the farm yet and we came in Farlow’s Garage where I worked, I lived, and bought this car. I think it was around 600 dollars.
INTERVIEWER: That sounds normal. That wouldn't even pay taxes today.
ALLEN: We took it down for a half-mile, down towards Pitts Creek, and he turned it over to me, and he says to me, you can drive this car […].
INTERVIEWER: And you'd never driven before?
ALLEN: Never driven a car before. No.
INTERVIEWER: Did you?
ALLEN: Yes, I did. I drove it home. After that I would drive where ever I wanted to go.
INTERVIEWER: Did you use the car in the winter?
ALLEN: Yes, most of the time. Of course there would be times when you couldn't, roads were so bad. I bought a horse before I left the farm, it was a city horse. She was a good saddle horse, I used ride in town on the back, saddled, seated on her, like your sittin' in a chair almost, except…
INTERVIEWER: Was there a place in town where you could tie it up?
ALLEN: You could use the hitching post down the street.
INTERVIEWER: How many hotels were in town? I know that there is the Parker House, that is still there, but […].
ALLEN: There was one down by the parking lot, just before you go over the bridge, there was a hote1, White ' s […].
INTERVIEWER: Alright, I've heard of that. Were there any saloons in town?
ALLEN: There might have been, but […].
INTERVIEWER: You didn't know about it […].
ALLEN: No, I didn't know about it. That's one thing that never bothered me. I wouldn't say I never bought a bottle back home, because I have. But I don't drink it. I don't even like it.
INTERVIEWER: That's the best reason not to drink it.
ALLEN: I never touch it. I smoke the pipe, I used to smoke cigars, but I smoked a pipe last summer, June […]. I gave more pleasure than I'm gettin' out of it, so I quit smokin'. I haven't smoked now since last June.
INTERVIEWER: When you were going to school, was there much problem with discipline? You did what the teacher said, or you're father knew about it.
ALLEN: Yes, yes. If the teacher didn't lick you, your daddy would. And the teacher would then.
INTERVIEWER: Did Pocomoke have a police department, like when you first went to the store, when you first bought your store?
ALLEN: Oh yes, Pocomoke had one policeman. Mr. Stroud was the policeman.
INTERVIEWER: Mostly Saturday afternoon, he was busy.
ALLEN: Yes. That's when they had most of their business. People would come in their horse and buggies and when they first opened the store, and they'd stay here till 12 o'clock at night.
INTERVIEWER: Well what would they do?
ALLEN: They'd just stand around and talk, able to get together once a week.
INTERVIEWER: They'd come in from the country.
ALLEN: Come in from the country, and they would go to the movies, the theater was there.
INTERVIEWER: Is it the same theater that is here now?
ALLEN: Yes. yes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you do a lot of bartering in your store? Did people pay cash or did they give you something in return? Or did they just charge and not pay?
ALLEN: It was done some of it. We did a credit business.
INTERVIEWER: You did a lot of credit business.
ALLEN: We had some good customers, we had some from Pocomoke. I have a lot of relatives here in Pocomoke. I.H. Merrill, Lloyd and Blaines, all relatives of mine. They dealt with us 100 per cent. They'd pay by the week. We'd try to get them.
INTERVIEWER: Did you do home delivery?
ALLEN: Yes we did.
INTERVIEWER: So they could phone in what they wanted and you'd deliver it.
ALLEN: Yes, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you deliver it yourself or did you hire young boys?
ALLEN: No. We had a couple of boys on a bicycle.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember any of them? Who any of them were?
ALLEN: Names? One of them was Lee Selby, back in those days and Randolph Fisher was another. Oh we had several at different times. But they were the longest.
INTERVIEWER: Your younger brother did the bookkeeping, and you did everything else?
ALLEN: Well he'd help in the store […].
INTERVIEWER: He’d help you in the store also. But he […].
ALLEN: He'd take all…, but he kept the books, he was experienced in it and he knew how to do.
INTERVIEWER: Well that was a real asset.
ALLEN: [GARBLED].
INTERVIEWER: Did you take anything like eggs and butter or something, that people […].
ALLEN: Yes, yes. Lord, we had one man down here, that brought our butter for 25 years, I bet. They would bring us about 25-30 pounds every week.
INTERVIEWER: I bet it was sold before it got there.
ALLEN: All we had to do is wrap it up and sell it. Sometimes they would be fussin' over it because we didn’t have enough to go around, And they took eggs.
INTERVIEWER: What about produce? Lettuce, vegetables, and stuff. Did most people grow their own, did they?
ALLEN: Yes. We had a place open up here Bull's.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, G.D. Bull.
ALLEN: Used to get produce there. Of course we used to take potatoes, used to get turnip greens from country. and a lot of things from the country like that.
INTERVIEWER: That’s good. And they would trade, they'd trade, they'd buy, you'd trade them something.
ALLEN: Strawberries, lots of times, we would be the first one to get a crate of strawberries […]. Sell a crate in 15 minutes.
INTERVIEWER: I'm sure. Isn't that nice, Oh, do you remember, when did the telephone come to Pocomoke? Do you remember when that was?
ALLEN: Telephone was down in Pitts Creek before I moved to town.
INTERVIEWER: Was it really?
ALLEN: In 1918. It came down there in 1918. The company would run the line down the road, the highway, but you had to put your poles from the highway up to the house.
INTERVIEWER: My. You had a long way to go too, didn’t you?
ALLEN: Yes we had several poles.
INTERVIEWER: Yes you did. And then once you put the poles up, they would run the wires and they were responsible for maintaining the wires?
ALLEN: Yes. Yes. They keep the poles, and they had the old phones […].
INTERVIEWER: That you cranked up. Yes I’ve seen those.
ALLEN: Two longs and a short, three short, one long and all that kind of stuff.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember any really big snowfalls?
ALLEN: Snow? I remember a snow in 19 I think it was 16---15 or 16 it was in April.
INTERVIEWER: April!
ALLEN: April 6th, we bedded potatoes the day before. We were in our shirt sleeves, and warm. You know what bedded potatoes were?
INTERVIEWER: Yes, isn’t that when you dig a hole and plant your potatoes?
ALLEN: No, it's a bed about 8 feet wide and you put the potatoes down there and a sprout comes up and that's what you plant for to get sweet potatoes.
INTERVIEWER: Sweet potatoes, Alright, good now I know.
ALLEN: And we bedded potatoes that day, and then you had the glass frames that you put over the top of them. Just before night it got real black, dark, I remember just as well as any thing. And when we got up the next morning we had 6 inches of snow.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my dear.
ALLEN: We thought, my laws, the potatoes are ruined. 6 inches of snow on top of those frames, so we ran out there and brushed all that snow off. The very worst thing we could have done--if we'd left the snow on their it wouldn’t have frozen not all of them, but some of them did, the 6th of April.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my I don't want to think about that. I'm ready for spring right now.
ALLEN: I never remember one that late in the season.
INTERVIEWER: How long were you in the store business?
ALLEN: 41 years.
INTERVIEWER: 41 years, okay.
ALLEN: We went in in 1920 and left in 1961.
INTERVIEWER: In 61. I know what I wanted to ask you, what affect did the depression have on your business?
ALLEN: It ruined us. We didn't have much to start off with, and we'd just bought new cases, you know meat cases, refrigerated meat cases, the year before. We bought them on time, pay so much a month. And the depression struck, the banks were closed, and money, you couldn't get it. And so some way we pulled through it. I have on my mother's side, she was a Clarke, and one of her relatives was down here, he used to come down right often, and he kept—to the store—and we were telling him the predicament we were in, pretty hard for us to make it, and didn't know if we would make it or not. So he said if you boys want some money, I'll let you have some. We got 600 dollars, he said you pay me back when you get it and I’m not charging you any interest.
INTERVIEWER: Oh how wonderful.
ALLEN: Now wasn’t that nice. He really saved us. We kept that money to keep these cases.
INTERVIEWER: Were you ever hungry during the depression?
ALLEN: No, we never…. I've never been hungry as long as I've been alive. I've always had plenty to eat.
INTERVIEWER: Did most people have enough to eat, around?
ALLEN: Yes, most people had.
INTERVIEWER: You just didn't have cash.
ALLEN: Yes, that's it, you didn't have money.
INTERVIEWER: Were there any disturbances, you know would people, did they get violent or anything around here?
ALLEN: Not too much, no. Very little of it, lots of people that had a little something, and anybody that didn't any, they would take care of them.
INTERVIEWER: That's what I was going to ask you if you didn't help each other out.
ALLEN: We did.
INTERVIEWER: You didn't use cars as much then either because you couldn't afford gasoline, or could you?
ALLEN: Gasoline wasn't very expensive then. I would buy five gallons for a dollar many a time.
INTERVIEWER: Oh for goodness sakes. Five gallons for a dollar.
ALLEN: That sounds like a fairy tale now. A dollar now won't buy a gallon.
INTERVIEWER: No it won't.
ALLEN: Not much over half a gallon.
INTERVIEWER: I think we have talked about everything. I’m trying to think of anything else.
ALLEN: Do you want to know when I got married?
INTERVIEWER: Oh yes, I forgot that, because when you left the farm you didn't even have a girlfriend, so how did you get one?
ALLEN: I was in the store business, and I used to see this girl around town right often. She was a schoolteacher and my cousin lived here in town too, and… [inaudible]… and I went with her for a couple of years, and we were engaged to· be married, and my cousin had a shower for her and she didn't show for the shower, and so… [garbled].
INTERVIEWER: After 2 years and being engaged. Well that was upsetting.
ALLEN: I got a dirty deal on that!! I'd give her a ring.
INTERVIEWER: Did she give it back?
ALLEN: Yes. I asked for the ring back. If she treated me like that I didn't think she deserved it. I got my ring back and I'd give her a bracelet, I'd give her a cameo pin, so she gave me all that back…. I guess a year almost…[garbled]… and she worked with her brother down the street in his country store, I knew him. He'd been there a year […]. She came the next year, I thought she was right cute. Like that picture right there. So she came to the store to do some shopping for her brother […] just to be smart, I tried to see what she got to say, I said you can't buy that … candy … trying to kid her along [garbled] … I got to talking to her … [garbled]… came a Sunday, I said would you like to rid to Ocean City? I had a little old Ford, a Roadster, wire wheels, I was stepping out then. She said, I'd love to but I have a date this Sunday, but I'll go next Sunday.
INTERVIEWER: Did she?
ALLEN: Yes she did. That's how we met. That's on the first date. On the other side of Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Look at those wire wheels, you are really set. What color was it?
ALLEN: It was black, with yellow wire wheels. Got those wire wheels…! took that of her and she took that of me. I was sittin' along the side of the road there on a stump. This is the same little car.
INTERVIEWER: Look at that, boy that is really sporty. Boy you must have known that this first date was going to be it.
ALLEN: That's her sittin' on the same step, I took this other one, and this is one on the bridge, the bridge across the river.
INTERVIEWER: That's right. I wanted to ask something about that. The train bridge was there, and that was the only one for a long time wasn't it?
ALLEN: No, there was a wood bridge.
INTERVIEWER: That's what I was wondering.
ALLEN: Down.
INTERVIEWER: Down, right.
ALLEN: That's where--------?
INTERVIEWER: Yes, towards Snow Hill.
ALLEN: The wooden bridge got bad and so the […].
INTERVIEWER: After your first date did you just keep right on dating?
ALLEN: Yes. Of course, we couldn't date too many times, it was almost time for her to go home for the summer. And she had to go back to Winchester to be with her parents in Winchester. In July I went up to see her, on the train.
INTERVIEWER: That was a trip, wasn't it?
ALLEN: All day. I got there at dark. So we, I had a picture here somewhere, that was taken pin the mountains somewhere. Here's the old Ford, I was talking about.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, that's the first car, wasn't it? Look at that. Well that's right sporty. in itself.
ALLEN: That was the first one we owned.
INTERVIEWER: Look at that steering wheel it's so big.
ALLEN: That's my wife's mother.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, her mother.
ALLEN: Yes. She was blind. She lived with us for 15 years. And she was blind from cataracts. I had a serious operation, I had kidney attacks before I was married, so after I was married it kept getting worse and Margaret Clarke was born, and sometimes I'd go 2 or 3 months between having one, and then…I went to Baltimore, to Dr. […], he examined me and he said he couldn't find anything wrong. He was supposed to be a specialist, too, so I came home and went along and I'd have, 2 or 3 months…. So my wife said, Dr. […] was home, January 4th, and a surgeon, there at Winchester, at the hospital there, I went in there and they X-rayed me and the Doctor there said yes you have kidney stones and the only thing to do was to have them out. So I went in the hospital.
INTERVIEWER: Did you go in at Winchester?
ALLEN: Yes in Winchester. They operated on me and took my kidney out.
INTERVIEWER: The whole kidney?
ALLEN: The whole kidney. And I got along real good with it, and I'd been there 3 weeks and then they didn't even prop you up in bed.
INTERVIEWER: You just laid there.
ALLEN: You just laid right flat in bed, six-dollars a day.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my, that added up for you didn't it.
ALLEN: It’s probably six-dollars an hour now.
INTERVIEWER: Right, and that's probably cheap.
ALLEN: That night, I was going to get up the next day, […]. My wife came over to see, it wasn't too far, she could walk it. She came over and the doctor stayed in the hospital all night, the surgeon […].
INTERVIEWER: Oh that's awful.
ALLEN: And I was in the hospital three more weeks […].
INTERVIEWER: You still had the store at the time?
ALLEN: Yes, we still had the store.
INTERVIEWER: But your brother was running it.
ALLEN: He was running it, but we had to hire somebody to take my place.
INTERVIEWER: To take your place. Yes you did. Well they must have fixed you up good.
ALLEN: Yes, yes.
INTERVIEWER: You're still going.
ALLEN: Got along.
INTERVIEWER: It all depends on how it is done and how you are reacting to it too. You hadn’t gotten married yet.
ALLEN: I went in July and she came back in September to teach the next year. […].
INTERVIEWER: Being doctors in town.
ALLEN: Dr. Sartorius,
INTERVIEWER: He’s still alive at the nursing home.
ALLEN: Old Dr. Sartorius, he delivered Margaret Clarke and Sonny both.
INTERVIEWER: Now did he deliver them here?
ALLEN: Right here in this house.
INTERVIEWER: Right here in the house. How nice.
ALLEN: I had a trained nurse, come here and stay. She was here when they were born and stayed three weeks, 1 think. Then you know, they didn’t allow women up till about three weeks in bed. Now they have them up in 2 or 3 days.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, walking. Now was he the only doctor in town?
ALLEN: No, there was Dr. Wilson, Dr. Hall, and Dr. Parker. There were 4 doctors here.
INTERVIEWER: Four doctors, goodness. Was there a dentist?
ALLEN: Yes. Dr. Gibbons I don't know if you heard of him or not.
INTERVIEWER: No.
ALLEN: He was the dentist here for several years and then Dr. Walters, he was a close relative of mine, Dr, Walters was. Of course he did most all of my work, as long as he lived. And Dr. Nock. Three dentists.
INTERVIEWER: That's a lot. Except you draw from a big rural area, for Pocomoke, so they have that. Who was, when you were growing up, or back even before 1930 who was the Funeral Director?
ALLEN: Stevenson, first one I remember. Stevenson. They drove horses then.
INTERVIEWER: Oh they did.
ALLEN: Horses and big […].
INTERVIEWER: Big hearse?
ALLEN: We could see up the road. we could see real plain, it wasn't to far from the town road, we could see them come by […]. Two men would be sittin' on top there.
INTERVIEWER: Was there just the one Funeral Director in town at one time?
ALLEN: That's the only one I knew.
INTERVIEWER: I just knew I had forgotten to ask about that. And that helps people in the future, looking back, it's nice to know who the doctors and funeral directors were.
ALLEN: And then Watson came. He was here a long time. But that was later. He was good. Nelson takes over now. He's doing pretty good.
INTERVIEWER: Can you think of anything else I've forgotten? We talked about farming, talked about cars…
ALLEN: Do you want to know about the old steamboat that used to come up the river?
INTERVIEWER: Oh yes, because you told me about the steamboat going to Baltimore. Do tell me about the one that […].
ALLEN: They had 2 boats, Pocomoke and Maryland. And they'd go up to Snow Hill, they'd come from Baltimore and stop here and unload freight here and go on to Snow Hill, and they'd come back and pick up freight and go on and go back to Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever go on up to Snow Hill by steamboat?
ALLEN: Yes, you could get on here and go to Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. That was a pretty trip, wasn't it?
ALLEN: Yes it was. One time, summertime, they'd go on an excursion down to, what do you call, I think they pronounce it Sandbar, on the bay there. They'd take a moonlight excursion there, you know, that was a treat.
INTERVIEWER: I can't think of that either. But I've heard of something about that. Somebody else has told me about that. Oh that would be a treat. Did they ever have something like a showboat come up?
ALLEN: I think that showboat, is it pictured in that book? I think I remember it was up here one time.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Because I remember hearing it went up to Snow Hill. So it must have stopped here.
ALLEN: Yes, it stopped here.
INTERVIEWER: When the boat went from Pocomoke to Snow Hill, there was a Mattaponi Landing, was that still there, when you remember it.
ALLEN: Yes way back it was. Used to be a ferry crossed there.
INTERVIEWER: Alright, I've heard that too.
ALLEN: At Mattaponi, I think that was where the ferry crossed. Come across there.
INTERVIEWER: It was hand pulled.
ALLEN: I remember father tellin' that Sam MacMaster, he was the school superintendent, and he drove his pair of horses and sleigh across the river on the ice one time.
INTERVIEWER: Really. That was frozen, wasn't it?
ALLEN: I remember my father tellin' me he put skates on his porch, and skate into Pocomoke, right down the highway. Where it had snowed and froze and they skate right on top of the snow, and skate onto the Pocomoke River. There was a crowd on there skating.
INTERVIEWER: That would have been fun. Oh that's good.
ALLEN: It would have to be frozen to the bottom before I'd get out there.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I don't want anything to do with the Pocomoke River as far […].
ALLEN: Too deep river.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have mail delivery out at the farm?
ALLEN: Yes, yes.
INTERVIEWER: All the time?
ALLEN: Yes, yes. every day except Sunday.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, That's pretty good. Did you ever go to Public Landing, I think they had something called Farmers Day or Foresters Day.
ALLEN: We used to have Farmers Day at Red Hills, too.
INTERVIEWER: That's what I was thinking, Red Hills, I knew there was someplace you would go. You'd go to Red Hills before you would go to Public Landing, right?
ALLEN: Yes, we did. We used to drive a pair of horses with a big wagon. Top wagon, I don't know what they call them, back in those days, but it had a top over it. And we'd always, first Wednesday in August was a big day at Red Hills, and my mother would fry chicken, and they'd cook a mess of stuff the day before, and they'd hook the pair of horses up to this little wagon and take off for Red Hills, go down there and take your team out and tie them to a tree and we'd go in bathin'.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Right on the beach there.
ALLEN: Right on the beach. You could go out a good ways, before it got very deep. My father saved a little boy’s life down there.
INTERVIEWER: He did?
ALLEN: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Tell me about that.
ALLEN: There was a boat anchored out there, and of course, that tide was coming in there and this little boy was playing on this boat, and when he jumped off he jumped off on the other side of the boat, and the tide had come up and it was over his head. And he went down for the second time, my father got to him and grabbed him, and pulled him up. He was almost gone. He saved him. I remember I was scared to death, I as a baby too. This boy wasn't very big, when he jumped over it was over his head.
INTERVIEWER: My, he was a lucky little boy that your father was nearby.
ALLEN: Yes, yes, if he hadn't seen him, he probably wouldn't know anything about it.
INTERVIEWER: Did you go on over to Assateague, any? At Red Hills you’re on the bay, and then the island is over there.
ALLEN: No, not very […]. I've been there.
INTERVIEWER: But that wasn't something that you did, regular.
ALLEN: Used to go to Public Landing, later on.
INTERVIEWER: You'd take the cars.
ALLEN: When we got cars, we'd go to Public Landing.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever go out to the Old Furnace?
ALLEN: Yes, I've been there many times.
INTERVIEWER: You have? What was there when you remember going?
ALLEN: Well there wasn't much there. To tell you the truth. When we first started out there. Of course, you'd hear the name, Old Furnace, was something nice to see. If you know about it. We used to go out there lots of times Sunday afternoons, Wife and I and the kids.
INTERVIEWER: were there any buildings still standing at all?
ALLEN: Nothing but part of the old furnace.
INTERVIEWER: Just the furnace itself.
ALLEN: But you weren't supposed to go up on there.
INTERVIEWER: That didn't stop anybody.
ALLEN: Some of them climbed up there. It was mostly just dirt, that you climbed in. I haven't been there lately; I want to go there sometime and see how….
INTERVIEWER: It really looks good.
ALLEN: I bet it does.
INTERVIEWER: It does. They are having their spring re-opening on the 15th of March. And then from then on they will be open every day, it really looks good. They've got a church out there, that they have moved into and the blacksmith is there. The old Episcopal Parish House, that's there, that's a museum and they have another little building that's a gift shop, and then a little house that they have a broom making machine in. An old one. It looks nice.
ALLEN: I've seen some pictures of it.
INTERVIEWER: It looks good. Let's see if we can remember anything else, we've got trains and steamboats, and cars and jobs. You said your mother was a Clark, is that Clarke with an E?
ALLEN: Yes that letter was an E.
INTERVIEWER: I know there is two distinct groups of them.
ALLEN: Did you know John Clarke? Do you? He worked the base.
INTERVIEWER: There's a Sue Clarke.
ALLEN: Sue Clarke, that's his wife.
INTERVIEWER: She's the one that I have heard of, and I think she had done some work on Genealogy.
ALLEN: […].
INTERVIEWER: You're related to a lot of people.
ALLEN: Here in Pocomoke, yes. I said, on my father’s side and on my mother’s side.
INTERVIEWER: I knew I forgot something. I'm glad you thought of that fire.
ALLEN: I was downtown where the fire was.
INTERVIEWER: Yes you were, weren't you. Tell me what you remember about that?
ALLEN: We were very busy that one morning, 2nd of April, if I get that…. You ever see that old poem that Edwin Hargis wrote?
INTERVIEWER: I've seen some, but I'm not sure which […].
ALLEN: Colored fellow wrote this poem about the Pocomoke Fire, I got it here somewhere.
INTERVIEWER: Well if you find it I want to see it.
ALLEN: I'll look for it sometime, see if I can't, I know it is here. Anyway, we were busy here that one morning, and the fire whistle blew, and I ran out front to see what it was, it was up Second Street here, Davis' Store, is where it started, and so the whistle was blowing and the siren and I left the store to help to get the old pumper out, I started a fire in it, the cop, I called his name a while ago,
INTERVIEWER: Sam, no, I know who you mean and I heard it and knew it.
ALLEN: He was the only cop, he and I started the fire in that old pumper and it wasn't long that it was spread over on Market Street and they had Fire Companies from all around, Salisbury, Fruitland, and down in Virginia. I don't know how many companies was here. My brother got on top of our store, had a tin roof, my sister owned the building, and he got up there with a broom and if a spark would fall on the roof he would brush it off.
INTERVIEWER: So the sparks were going down to your place. Across the way.
ALLEN: And it burnt, didn't burn anything on that side where our store was. Burnt right across the street from us.
INTERVIEWER: I bet you were worried, weren't you?
ALLEN: Yes, I was. We moved some things out, the safe, we rolled that out down the street, and then we were carrying some shoes, and we threw them in a box and took them up to my sisters on Second Street. Lost 2 or 3 shoes out of […] had 2 or 3 mismatched shoes, I'll never forget that. And that night we had home guard patrolling the streets.
INTERVIEWER: To keep people from looting. I'll be darned.
ALLEN: I was lucky that it didn't burn.
INTERVIEWER: Yes you really were. Did the businesses that had been burned, you know, the places, did they go together to help each other or did….
ALLEN: Well yes, some of them and some of them found different places and opened up again. Like Callahan. He opened up where […] garage is, he opened up a place up there Clark, the druggist Harry Clark, opened up a place in the same building. Down the street, they opened up, some of those buildings there weren't burnt, and they opened up there.
INTERVIEWER: I'm glad you thought of that fire.
ALLEN: Callahan's store was burned. That was right there on the corner. That's where, Sher's is in there now, right there on that corner, was Callahan's store. People on around here, down from my store [...] and the trucks would come and pick up stuff and save it, keep it from getting burned. This truck was up there loading up new clothes from Callahan and I ran over there and got a whole rack of clothes had a good bit of clothes on, I don't know what ever happened to it. I think the truck kept right on going.
INTERVIEWER: I was gettin' ready to say that I hope he didn't keep right on going.
ALLEN: They didn't burn anyhow.
INTERVIEWER: Oh my, isn't that something? That must have been a really sad time.
ALLEN: It was. It was a bad time.
INTERVIEWER: Before that, there was a fire company here?
ALLEN: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Volunteer?
ALLEN: Yes, volunteer.
INTERVIEWER: That was a blessing in itself.
ALLEN: But that company wasn't any good in that fire. Spark flew across the river here about a mile in the country and burned a man's barn down.
INTERVIEWER: Oh I didn't know that. I hadn't heard that.
ALLEN: Young's. Chester Young’s. Spark went over there and caught the barn on fire and burned it down.
INTERVIEWER: Oh for goodness sakes. Oh my. It started behind Davis's store,
ALLEN: Yes, he was burning some trash out there, and the wind was blowing right strong, and it got away from him. Kept right across on Market Street and all those buildings on Market Street were gone.
INTERVIEWER: Now was there, and I will take this out, if it matters. was he, how did people feel about this after, how did people feel about him after that happened?
ALLEN: Wasn't too much said about it.
INTERVIEWER: That's what I was wondering? I guess he couldn't help it.
ALLEN: They knew he was the cause of it, burning his stuff, but….
INTERVIEWER: But he didn't mean to and there wasn't any […].
ALLEN: No, no there wasn't anything done to him.
INTERVIEWER: That's what I was […] because now there would be a three-month investigation, all sorts of things. What else, you're remembering all the good things that I'm forgetting.
ALLEN: I kind of enjoy this.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I know what else. The Pocomoke Fair Grounds.
ALLEN: Fairgrounds? Oh I can tell you about the fairgrounds, too. I remember when the fair first started here.
INTERVIEWER: Oh do you? Okay,
ALLEN: They used to have races. They had some fast horses here on this track.
INTERVIEWER: Oh they did.
ALLEN: Yes. That was in August. They used to have a week of it. And they had these horses come here from, the fair would go all up and down the shore. And they had some fast horses here.
INTERVIEWER: Would they race Sulky Races?
ALLEN: Yes, sulky races. And they would have, demonstrate a car or something on the track, entertain people that came to the races.
INTERVIEWER: Would they have things like, sometimes fairs nowadays have prizes for canned goods and cows, all that went too.
ALLEN: Yes, have a table there about as long as this block, and all these canned goods, people would canned beans, corn and everything, fruit and they would have it on display there and get prizes, if you were chosen.
INTERVIEWER: Oh that was nice.
ALLEN: It was a sight to go through there and see it!!
INTERVIEWER: Could you buy things to eat at the fair of did you take your food with you?
ALLEN: You could buy there, they had little stands out there that you could buy food. And they had all kinds of games, you know, you throw and knock down, balls and all that stuff, be about 25 of them out there.
INTERVIEWER: All willing to take your money.
ALLEN: Yes, yes. And they’d take it too.
INTERVIEWER: When the fair came in, in August, the people who had the games and things, were they outsiders, that traveled with the fair?
ALLEN: They traveled with the fair.
INTERVIEWER: That's what I was wondering. They did that. Would local businesses have displays out there or […].
ALLEN: Some would, yes. They'd have machinery. They’d have machinery on display out there, of course, tractors, just started the last year or two, but they'd have plows and different kinds of machinery, that they could get on display.
INTERVIEWER: Why did the fair stop? What happened, it was a big operation.
ALLEN: Oh it was.
INTERVIEWER: My that impressed me. And it was perfectly respectable for children and wives and everybody to go.
ALLEN: Yes, yes, They had buses. Horse-drawn buses, Twilley, Sam Twilley.
INTERVIEWER: Alright, Sam Twilley, I've heard that.
ALLEN: Had 2 or 3 buses, he would back and forth, uptown, downtown, they'd meet the trains. People come in here, and he'd take them to the fair. Had big lots of people come and stay at the hotel, you know.
INTERVIEWER: I was going to ask you if they'd stay at the hotels […].
ALLEN: They'd buy a ticket to the fair.
INTERVIEWER: Pocomoke was really a busy place, wasn't it?
ALLEN: It was. And a safe place too, then.
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
ALLEN: You didn't hear anything much happening.
INTERVIEWER: Cause most everybody knew everybody else. Just about.
ALLEN: That's right.
INTERVIEWER: I can't think of anything else. I did think of something else, was there. Vet, when you were on the farm, if you're animals got sick, was there a Veterinarian?
ALLEN: There wasn't one in town.
INTERVIEWER: Alright, where did you go?
ALLEN: Down to Onancock.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, that's right far.
ALLEN: Yes, yes, Dr. Hunt.
INTERVIEWER: Would he come up here?
ALLEN: He'd come up here. My father had a nice pretty horse and she got this horse disease, spinal meningitis.
INTERVIEWER: I've heard of that.
ALLEN: I don't know what they call it now. And he come up and doctored, but she didn't make it. Just as pretty as a picture of a horse. Make a fellow sick.
INTERVIEWER: How long was your father in the legislature?
ALLEN: One winter. 1904.
INTERVIEWER: That was a good experience…. Did you get to go to Annapolis with him?
ALLEN: He also was, I don't know what you call it, had the Alms House up here at Snow Hill, the
INTERVIEWER: The poor farm.
ALLEN: It was for people who didn't have anything at all,
INTERVIEWER: The poor farm or the Alms House.
ALLEN: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Out past […].
ALLEN: Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Out past Snow Hill.
ALLEN: On the left going to Ocean City.
INTERVIEWER: Where the orchard used to be.
ALLEN: Yes. My father had to inspect that once a month, I think, he had to drive a horse and buggy. He drove a horse up there, took him all day to go there and back till he got home.
INTERVIEWER: That's a long trip.
ALLEN: Dirt Road too, then.
INTERVIEWER: I've got one picture of the Alms House, not when it was, shortly after it was closed. But that's all we've ever found. Surely somebody has a shot of it. That would be nice. You were kept busy farming because he had so much else to do.
ALLEN: Yes. He liked to fool with politics, right much.
INTERVIEWER: Well that takes time. Yes indeed.
ALLEN: Well his father was right much, in the neighborhood, he's somebody that people went to for advice, for different things, I forget what he did, some kind of state job. Do you want to know anything about Beverly?
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I forgot about it.
ALLEN: Judge Dennis,
INTERVIEWER: Right, right. He had that.
ALLEN: That's down Cedar Hall.
INTERVIEWER: Right down Cedar Hall, I was going to say isn't that on Cedar Hall Road?
ALLEN: Yes, across the creek from Cedar Hall.
INTERVIEWER: When you were growing up, were people living in it then?
ALLEN: Yes. Dennis lived there then.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. They did live there
ALLEN: Yes. They used, I went to school with Jane Dennis, we used to call her. She'd have a coat and hat…