Sturgis, Blanche (1891-1993) |
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
|
Interviewee: |
Blanche Sturgis (1891-1993) |
| Interviewer: |
Katherine Fisher |
| Date of interview: |
1984 November 5 |
| Length of interview: |
53 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:
Church
Domestic Life
School
Storm of 1933
Transportation
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Worcester County (Md.)—Women’s History
Location Terms:
Piney Grove (Md.)
Snow Hill (Md.)
INTERVIEW BEGIN:
INTERVIEWER: The day is Monday, November fifth, and I’m in Salisbury doing an interview with Mrs. Blanche Sturgis. Mrs. Sturgis, how old are you, if you don’t mind my asking?
BLANCHE: Ninety-three.
INTERVIEWER: Ninety-three.
BLANCHE: This past June.
INTERVIEWER: Which means that you were born in…
BLANCHE: In ’91.
INTERVIEWER: 1891.
BLANCHE: Mm Hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Where were you born?
BLANCHE: Near Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Sort of describe what direction from Snow Hill. Toward Pocomoke or toward Salisbury?
BLANCHE: No. It was, um…You know where Powellville is?
INTERVIEWER: Yes!
BLANCHE: Well, it was on that road.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. On what we call the Whiton Road.
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Today. Out there, toward Indiantown.
BLANCHE: Yes. Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Um, what was your father’s name?
BLANCHE: Elijah Perdue.
INTERVIEWER: Elijah Perdue?
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And your mother’s name?
BLANCHE: Mary Virginia Dickerson.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, she was a Dickerson!
BLANCHE: She was a Dickerson before she was married.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Now, do you remember either of your grandparents and their names?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Could you tell us?
BLANCHE: Ah, my grandmother, um, we called her Grandmother Tilly.
INTERVIEWER: Tilly?
BLANCHE: She was Mother’s stepmother. She was, she lived to be quite old. And, she was very, very nice and, uh, Father, my father’s father, was John James Perdue. And, his wife’s name was Hester Ennis Perdue.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. So, she was an Ennis?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: My! Those are old Worcester County names!
BLANCHE: Oh, yes!
INTERVIEWER: Yes, indeed! Alright. Um, what did your father do?
BLANCHE: He was a timberman.
INTERVIEWER: He was?
BLANCHE: He worked in the woods.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. What did, how did he haul timber out of the woods? What did he use?
BLANCHE: (LAUGHTER) Well, he used oxen if you know what oxen is.
INTERVIEWER: Yes. Yes.
BLANCHE: And horses and mules.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. He used all three?
BLANCHE: All three. And hauled it to the mill. And it was sawed. And then, a lot of times—he would load that lumber on a wagon. And take it to Snow Hill to the mill. I forget the mill. I forget the mill.
INTERVIEWER: I don’t, I don’t remember the name of the mill. It was down by the river, though. Wasn’t it?
BLANCHE: Yes. Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Now, where was the mill closest to you all where he’d get the sawing done originally?
BLANCHE: Well, you know, he had to move from place to place. Wherever he found a track of land. And, we were, uh, I guess six or eight miles. And then, another place we lived was, uh, right near home. We had had to move wherever, each and every time he got a track of land. We had to move the family. He did.
INTERVIEWER: That, that kept your mother busy, didn’t it?
BLANCHE: More than busy! Because she had, I have a twin brother.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, you do?
BLANCHE: Of course, he passed away. And there was one, uh, little brother, older than I. He was, uh…Let’s see. He was…I guess he was about sixteen months old when my brother and I were born. So, Mother had three babies.
INTERVIEWER: She did have three babies to deal with.
BLANCHE: Three babies. She said she had three babies wearing diapers at one time. (LAUGHTER)
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my! I wouldn’t even want that today!
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Let alone then! Ah, what sort of responsibilities did you have around the house as you were growing up? Do you remember any chores you had to do?
BLANCHE: Yes. When I was three and a half years old, I had a sister born to us, to Mother.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness!
BLANCHE: And I rocked the cradle.
INTERVIEWER: Aww. That—
BLANCHE: I was three and a half years old.
INTERVIEWER: Did your mother have the baby at home or go—
BLANCHE: She had them all at home. I had all of mine at home.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Was there a midwife or a neighbor lady—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --that would come in?
BLANCHE: A midwife.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. I was talking to, um, another lady, a Mrs. Shockley that also had lived down on the Whiton Road, and she had mentioned a black lady who was a midwife.
BLANCHE: Well, there was several of them. Yes. And there was a, some white ones, too.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. (Unintelligible) Um, did your mom have a garden?
BLANCHE: Yes. We lived on the, out of the garden.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Did you can and dry—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --things? Um, what about the ordinary things of keeping house from day to day? Ah, used woodstoves?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And your brother probably had to do some wood chopping?
BLANCHE: Well, we both started when we were about eight and nine years old, helping with the farm work.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my! That kept you busy!
BLANCHE: We were too small to do it, but Daddy had to have help.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. He needed the help. Where did you go to school?
BLANCHE: Pine Grove.
INTERVIEWER: Oh! I know where that is!
BLANCHE: Do you?
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
BLANCHE: And the church there.
INTERVIEWER: And the church, right. Uh, Nora—
BLANCHE: Perdue.
INTERVIEWER: (Unintellegible) Perdue. She’s my neighbor across the street in Snow Hill.
BLANCHE: Oh! She is?
INTERVIEWER: Mm hmm.
BLANCHE: Well.
INTERVIEWER: I live just two houses—
BLANCHE: Well, she’s my sister-in-law.
INTERVIEWER: Well, she is. Isn’t she?
BLANCHE: Garman.
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
BLANCHE: My brother. My twin brother.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I didn’t know that! Alright. Now I can put every—I can put pieces together.
BLANCHE: Yeah. Put them together. (Unintelligible) (the war), maybe.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. I’ll be darned! Well, then you were right back in (unintelligible). Um, were there many students in school when you were there?
BLANCHE: Well, you see, that’s the only (unintelligible) school they had. That and Mount Zion—and that was about six or eight miles.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. So that was—
BLANCHE: So, it was filled. One room school.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness! Do you remember any of your teachers? Who they were?
BLANCHE: One of them was a Coulbourne. Nora Coulbourne. Martha Powell…Annie Dunlap…and Edith, uh, Stanford. And, of course, there were others but I stopped about then. I stopped when I was, um, sixteen. My…I had to stop because Mother had to have help.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. (Unintelligible) And that was not unusual back then?
BLANCHE: No. It wasn’t.
INTERVIEWER: No. You just did that. Um…was the school used for things more than just school?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: It was…you just went to school there?
BLANCHE: Just, just for school. That’s right.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Now, the church in the area, was that Mount Olive Church?
BLANCHE: Mount Olive. We were born and raised right in, in and around that church.
INTERVIEWER: Aw. That’s good. Now, that was a really well-attended church, wasn’t it?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: It drew from all the—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --surrounding areas.
BLANCHE: Yes. Yes. And it was, it was (unintelligible) settled in different places around. My neighbors. And, it was filled.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Now, was that a Methodist Church?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Who…Do you remember any of the ministers were there? Did you have a regular minister—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --or did one come in?
BLANCHE: Yes. Regular.
INTERVIEWER: Regular?
BLANCHE: (unintelligible) (Scottsdale)
INTERVIEWER: Alright. I’ve heard of him.
BLANCHE: …Hmm…Now, there’s a space of time there I don’t remember who (unintelligible) and different ones (unintelligible) Elmer (unintelligible). He was the one from (unintelligible). And then, we had a Nicholas. Norman Nicholas.
INTERVIEWER: Ok…Did you, um, when, when you go to church, did they have church every Sunday or…
BLANCHE: Every other Sunday.
INTERVIEWER: Every other Sunday.
BLANCHE: But, we had Sunday School every Sunday.
INTERVIEWER: That’s what I was going to ask. If Sunday School was run by the, the lay people of the church.
BLANCHE: Yes. Yes.
INTERVIEWER: When you did that, when you had a Sunday when you had church, what time would you go and what was it like as far as the service and the way things were run?
BLANCHE: Well, service was very much like it is now. We (unintelligible). I think we had Sunday School about 10:00. And then, after Sunday School, of course, it was preaching.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Did the children go to preaching?
BLANCHE: Oh, yes. Children (unintelligible) church.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, was there, do you ever remember of any incidents…I know in church now, every now and then, you get young children in there and they do some pretty funny things.
BLANCHE: Well, of course. I guess they did then. (LAUGHTER)
INTERVIEWER: Right. But nothing—
BLANCHE: Nothing that compares to now, but—
INTERVIEWER: Would you have, um…I know nowadays you have church suppers or church socials--
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --or things like that.
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have those, also?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Emma Matthews was telling me about making homemade ice cream as a way (unintelligible).
BLANCHE: Honey, I made many a-gallon!
INTERVIEWER: Have you really? Aw, that’s (unintelligible). Where would you get the ice?
BLANCHE: You had to go to town to get it. And then, in the wintertime, it was cold enough, that we would go down in the field. We had a ditch. You know what a ditch is?
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
BLANCHE: And get the ice there.
INTERVIEWER: Right out of the ditch.
BLANCHE: When I was married, that’s what Mother got her ice. Make her ice cream.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, for goodness sakes! It was colder.
BLANCHE: It was a lot colder than it is now.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember…Let’s see, if you were born in ’91, wasn’t there a really big snow around ’96 or ’98? I remember…Do you remember some really big snows?
BLANCHE: Yeah. I think I do. My sister Cora, which just passed away, was, uh, born in February in one of those big snows.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear!
BLANCHE: And then, children didn’t stay home when there was a baby being—coming in. They were taken to the neighbors. And Daddy had to take us, uh, in a big snow. To, to one of the neighbors. And, she put us in a room on a little…You know what a trundle bed is?
INTERVIEWER: Yes. I know the kind that pulls out from under.
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
BLANCHE: And that’s what we slept in. I thought we’d freeze to death. Of course, the houses were cold (unintelligible) heated. And, but, in the next morning, we got up and Daddy, he come picked us up. And, we had a little girl at our house.
INTERVIEWER: Isn’t that something!
BLANCHE: And we were tickled to death with her!
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I’ll bet!
BLANCHE: Every one of the children that come along, I was happy about it.
INTERVIEWER: Well, that’s good.
BLANCHE: And…
INTERVIEWER: How many, how many did your mom and dad end up having?
BLANCHE: Seven.
INTERVIEWER: Seven?
BLANCHE: Now, of course, they’re older. My little brother passed away when we were babies. I don’t remember him.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. But they had six that lived?
BLANCHE: Yeah. Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Um, who were some of your neighbors out in that area? What were some of their names?
BLANCHE: One was the Carmean. And, one was the Coulbourne. One was the Ruark…
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever do anything as a neighborhood, like go to different houses for, for entertainment or (unintelligible)?
BLANCHE: Maybe once a year. Not often. We, we stayed home.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Did you…What would you do, let’s say, before you went to school, when you were real little? What would you do to entertain yourself if there was a time, if you had time?
BLANCHE: Well, we just had to play around and entertain ourselves.
INTERVIEWER: There weren’t games, or—
BLANCHE: No. Not for small children.
INTERVIEWER: Not for small children (unintelligible). Um, what about when you got into school?
BLANCHE: Well, our first school was Long Ridge.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. I’ve heard Mrs. Perdue speak of that, so I know where that is.
BLANCHE: And, uh, the next one was, uh…up near Salisbury. Daddy had to move—to different places. And then, the next one was down (unintelligible). That was home.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. So, you’ve always considered that home place?
BLANCHE: Yes. That was home. And that was where we, um, wound up. Daddy bought a nice farm down there, and, uh, (unintelligible) we lived and worked.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. So, he did eventually stop the wood—
BLANCHE: Yeah. But, he had to—
INTERVIEWER: Temporarily?
BLANCHE: --after he got a little age on him.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And then went into farming?
BLANCHE: Well, he, he tried to do both.
INTERVIEWER: My, but with moving around, that’s hard to do.
BLANCHE: It was hard to do. But, after he moved in this, on this farm, it’s where, it’s where we children had…We did most of the outside work then. We were old enough to do that.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, did your mother raise chickens?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: What about geese?
BLANCHE: Yes. We had geese. We had, um, hogs and cows. We had (unintelligible) raised everything we ate except for coffee and sugar.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And (unintelligible) when you’d go to town, you’d go to Snow Hill?
BLANCHE: Yes. But, we didn’t go to town often. (Unintelligible) country stores.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, you did? Where were the country stores at?
BLANCHE: Right here at Mount Olive School.
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible)
BLANCHE: (Unintelligible) school. (Unintelligible) school.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Alright.
BLANCHE: It was Mama’s brother, Mother’s brother had a grocery store and dry goods. All, everything.
INTERVIEWER: Right back there?
BLANCHE: Right back there.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Now, if you’re going back there now, you’ve got Mount Olive church here.
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: And you turn the corner to get back to where Piney Grove—
BLANCHE: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: --was. So, the chur- the chur- the store was over there?
BLANCHE: Yeah. Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. There’s nothing left now, is there?
BLANCHE: No. Well, the people have homes there, now.
INTERVIEWER: Right. But there’s nothing left of the store?
BLANCHE: No. No. The store was burned down years ago.
INTERVIEWER: Oh. Ok. (Unintelligible) Goodness! Um, was the school, was it close enough for you to walk?
BLANCHE: We had to walk. We had no other—
INTERVIEWER: Alright. How far was it?
BLANCHE: Well, one school was about three miles.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. That was Long Ridge?
BLANCHE: No. This was the (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Ok. This was—
BLANCHE: The school near, near Mount Olive. But, about three miles farther. But, our last (unintelligible) school was, uh, I guess a mile. But, it was walking.
INTERVIEWER: And you went no matter what the weather was?
BLANCHE: Well, if there was too much snow—
INTERVIEWER: Alright. (Unintelligible)
BLANCHE: If the weather (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Then you just couldn’t go.
BLANCHE: We wouldn’t go.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Did the, uh, teachers board—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --around the area?
BLANCHE: Yes. One of them, uh, there was two or three teachers that boarded with (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Oh, did they? Ok. (Unintelligible) Did you, um…Ok. How did you keep things cold?
(LAUGHTER)
BLANCHE: We had a cold house, and, uh—
INTERVIEWER: Ok. In the wintertime, that was…
BLANCHE: Well, we just, we didn’t have any, anything to keep, uh, I mean didn’t have any way to keep them cold.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Did you have a, um, a, a…I’ll call it like a springhouse, or anything like that, outside?
BLANCHE: Yes. We had, what we called, a milk house.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. A milk house. Ok.
BLANCHE: And, we kept, that’s where we kept our milk and butter, and—and cream and things like that.
INTERVIEWER: And that was actually dug down in the ground (unintelligible)?
BLANCHE: No. This was on top.
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible) was on top?
BLANCHE: (unintelligible) It had a big trough. You know what a trough is? And we kept that filled with water.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And just that was enough—
BLANCHE: That was enough.
INTERVIEWER: --to keep it safe, anyway?
BLANCHE: Yeah. Well, anyhow, we of course, we had to, it took a big family, it took a lot for us to eat.
INTERVIEWER: You didn’t have things sitting around for a while?
BLANCHE: No, we didn’t.
INTERVIEWER: No, you didn’t. Oh, my goodness. Um…Tell me, you went out to help with farming. What were some of the things that your dad was growing as he was farming? Corn?
BLANCHE: Corn. Strawberries and—
INTERVIEWER: Oh! Strawberries!
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: How did you like weeding them?
(LAUGHING)
BLANCHE: (unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: I think they’re the worst things to weed that you have to (unintelligible). Uh, strawberries were a good money crop, weren’t they?
BLANCHE: Good money, yes. That’s the way we paid, or, we paid for Daddy’s farm was strawberries.
INTERVIEWER: Was the strawberries (unintelligible)? Ok.
BLANCHE: And, of course, at that time, we children were old enough to take care of the strawberries until they got, come in season. And then, Mother, we, we picked strawberries. And that was the only way we children had to make any money. They paid us to pick the strawberries. And that’s what we had to use to buy, after we got up in size—-our clothing for the year. (unintelligible) clothes like it does now.
INTERVIEWER: No, I guess not. Did your mom make a lot of your clothes, or were you able to buy—
BLANCHE: All of them!
INTERVIEWER: All of them. Where would you go to get the material? That little country store?
BLANCHE: Yes. A lot of it, and sometimes, Mother would come in to Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And—
BLANCHE: And she’d buy what she needed. She was a dressmaker.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, was she?
BLANCHE: Before she was married.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, well, my! That was nice!
BLANCHE: It was nice. And she did all of her knitting. We children wore long-knit stockings.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. I’ve heard of those. And she knit those?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness!
BLANCHE: And the men’s socks. She knitted those.
INTERVIEWER: When did she have time to do (unintelligible)?
BLANCHE: Honey, she just, she took time. Of course (unintelligible) then different than what it is now. Each, each child had, ah, their chores to do.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. (Unintelligible) Um, did you have a pump inside the house?
BLANCHE: After a while, we did.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. But not early on?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. So, actually, just getting a meal, we would think, is a really hard thing to do, because you’d have to go out and get water.
BLANCHE: And wood.
INTERVIEWER: And wood.
BLANCHE: Cook with a woodstove.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Do you remember any…Sometimes you remember something your parents cooked that was really great. Really good. Do you remember any specialties that were hers?
BLANCHE: Mother’s biscuits.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, were they good ones?
BLANCHE: And she had to make a big pan.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness!
BLANCHE: For all of us.
INTERVIEWER: I’ll bet so.
BLANCHE: (unintelligible) and sweet potato pie.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, I love that!
BLANCHE: I don’t care for sweet potato pie.
INTERVIEWER: Don’t you, really?
BLANCHE: But, Mother used to make so many of them.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, when you left school, uh…Let me ask you a question. Did you do any dating? What did you all do for courting and dating back then?
BLANCHE: Well, we didn’t do much until we were seventeen and eighteen. We didn’t go out with the boys until we were eighteen years old. But, we, we could have them in the home when we were about seventeen.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, and if you all went to something in somebody’s house, it would be as groups?
BLANCHE: Yes. Right.
INTERVIEWER: Rather than as—
BLANCHE: Like—
INTERVIEWER: --boys and girls.
BLANCHE: --they used to have it called “The Ladies Aid” and different groups (unintelligible) like that. And, we’d start out, (unintelligible). Well, we couldn’t go unless they said so (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Alright. You had to get your parent’s permission?
BLANCHE: Yes. And we would go to different homes with these groups.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Did you, um, did you, did you meet the man you were going to marry at school?
BLANCHE: No. No.
INTERVIEWER: You didn’t?
BLANCHE: I didn’t know him for, until after I was grown.
INTERVIEWER: Mm hmm. How did you meet your husband?
BLANCHE: I think it was at a party. They lived down on the bay, Public Landing. You know where that is?
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I do. Alright.
BLANCHE: And then, they moved, ah, I guess about three or four years before we were married, over near Snow Hill—On this side.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. On this side of Snow Hill.
BLANCHE: And, uh, well, we went together for three years.
INTERVIEWER: Before you were married?
BLANCHE: Before we were married.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness! That’s sort of unusual, nowadays!
BLANCHE: Well, well, it is unusual. But, it wasn’t then.
INTERVIEWER: No (unintelligible). What would, what would you two do? Nowadays, you know, kids go to the movies and go out and go to dinner and things.
BLANCHE: Well, we stayed home. We entertained our boyfriends at home.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And your parents were nearby?
BLANCHE: Mother said she aimed to be in the house when we had company.
INTERVIEWER: That’s not a bad idea.
BLANCHE: No. Well…(LAUGHTER)
INTERVIEWER: Now, when, when, what was your wedding like?
BLANCHE: A home wedding. We were married at my home.
INTERVIEWER: At your house. And his family came?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Did you have any neighborhood or special friends that would come for it?
BLANCHE: Well, we, the uh, uh, (unintelligible) as friends and some friends from church. Just our neighbors.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Um, now, what year were you married?
BLANCHE: 1916.
INTERVIEWER: 1916. And then, am I right in saying, that home weddings were the usual thing?
BLANCHE: Well, ma-. A lot of it. Now, we did have church weddings. But, I preferred to married at home.
INTERVIEWER: That was nice (unintelligible). Well, where did you and your husband go once you got married? Did you have a honeymoon, for one thing?
BLANCHE: No, ma’am. We went to his home.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Now, that’s his home with his parents?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And you went to live there?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. How long did you live with his parents?
BLANCHE: …I guess we had to stay there two or three months, because…They had a house on the farm—that we went to. But, it had been (unintelligible) living there—and it had to be renovated. And papered and painted.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Did you do a lot of that work?
BLANCHE: I did all of it.
INTERVIEWER: You did all of it, didn’t you? Even the papering?
BLANCHE: Oh, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Where’d you get the wallpaper? Snow Hill?
BLANCHE: Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. I never thought about that before (unintelligible).
BLANCHE: From Snow Hill. And then, we, we got moved, and...
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Now, where was your house when you go married? Was it…Well, that’s where you were telling me…out toward Indiantown?
BLANCHE: No. No.
INTERVIEWER: No?
BLANCHE: This was near the Old Furnace.
INTERVIEWER: Oh. Ok. On the other side.
BLANCHE: On the other side.
INTERVIEWER: Of what’s now Route 12—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --but then, wasn’t anything.
BLANCHE: Our farm joined the Old Furnace.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. It did?
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. If, if Furnace Road is running east and west, was your farm on the south or the north side? (LAUGHING) Let me (unintelligible). More toward Salisbury from the Furnace?
BLANCHE: No. It was near Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Near Snow Hill?
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, what did your husband do?
BLANCHE: Farm.
INTERVIEWER: He was a farmer, too? So, you had already been trained?
BLANCHE: I, I knew about farm work (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: You knew about farm work.
BLANCHE: And it never stopped! (LAUGHING) Until after he passed away.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Now, how old was he when he died?
BLANCHE: Forty- forty-eight.
INTERVIEWER: That was young.
BLANCHE: He was forty-eight, I was forty-five.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness! That really was young! Um, now, when you all on the farm, now, did you have, um, water inside?
BLANCHE: No. No.
INTERVIEWER: You’d go outside?
BLANCHE: Outside.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And people are always amazed, you had outhouses and thought nothing of it.
BLANCHE: That’s right.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And, um, and I presume you had, had a garden?
BLANCHE: Always had gardens.
INTERVIEWER: Always—
BLANCHE: And, I still have a garden.
INTERVIEWER: I was gonna say, do you like it?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Even after having to do it, you still enjoy it?
BLANCHE: I enjoy it. That’s my baby.
INTERVIEWER: That is. Ok. You can watch that. Um, now, on the, on the farm that, once you got married, and this would be after 1916…
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Did you, did you ever do any selling or trading of eggs or butter or anything like that?
BLANCHE: Well, uh, that was, uh, we had, of course we raised that on the farm—
INTERVIEWER: Right.
BLANCHE: --then sold it.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. What about butchering? Did you do your own butchering?
BLANCHE: (unintelligible) he did. We did our own butchering.
INTERVIEWER: Did you really? Did your dad do that, too?
BLANCHE: Huh?
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible) with your dad, did he do his own butchering, also?
BLANCHE: Oh, yes. Of course, they had to have help.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Right. You would call—
BLANCHE: Call to have help. A lot of times the neighbors.
INTERVIEWER: Alright…Would come in and then they would share.
BLANCHE: Yes. And, they’d help us. We’d help them.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. That would work fine. Would you do the same thing like at harvesting and different things?
BLANCHE: Well, yes. They did a lot of that, too. Of course, we did, you did the most of it yourself. But, a lot of times, it would change.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Share?
BLANCHE: Yes. Share, yes.
INTERVIEWER: It would work that way. Ok. Now, when you, when you would come in to Snow Hill, let’s say, after you were married, what do you remember about Snow Hill? Today, it’s real quiet and there’s not much there.
BLANCHE: I know. And it about breaks my heart, sometimes.
INTERVIEWER: But, when you would go in, let’s say, around 1920 or so—
BLANCHE: Well, Honey. Saturday nights—was our time to go into Snow Hill (unintelligible). Of course, you always had a little shopping to do. And, we’d go in and go shopping and meet our friends.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. So, Saturday night was the “big night.”
BLANCHE: The “big night.” Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, were there places to eat in Snow Hill? Or you just went for shopping and (unintelligible)?
BLANCHE: We just went for shopping. We didn’t go eat. We didn’t have the money to spend for that.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Ok. (Unintelligible) Was there more than one, uh, grocery store or dry goods store in town?
BLANCHE: Oh, yes. There was several.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. So, you had a choice—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --of places to go? What about a drug store?
BLANCHE: Yes. A drug store.
INTERVIEWER: Who was, who was some of the doctors? Do you remember any of them that were around?
BLANCHE: Doctor Paul Jones.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. I’ve heard him mentioned.
BLANCHE: He was our family doctor.
INTERVIEWER: Would he come out to you?
BLANCHE: Yes!
INTERVIEWER: My! That was quite a trip, wasn’t it?
BLANCHE: It was, on a horse and buggy.
INTERVIEWER: Goodness, gracious!
BLANCHE: It wasn’t a car. (Unintelligible) summer, but, uh…Let me get my thoughts together. (Unintelligible) December that we were sixteen, that I, my brother and I were sixteen years old. Of course, the other children were all small. There were three of us down with the Typhoid Fever.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my!
BLANCHE: And, (unintelligible). I don’t know how many weeks. I think about four or five weeks. I was, I had it worse than they did. They didn’t, they put two of them in one room, but they wouldn’t (unintelligible) me there with them. And, Mother taking care of all of us. How she did it, I don’t know. Because, she was a strong woman, and she…When she made up her mind to do something, it was gonna be done! And, you had to do likewise!
INTERVIEWER: Alright. She expected it of you.
BLANCHE: Yes…But, anyhow, that (unintelligible). Dr. Paul Jones…And there was a doctor by the name of (unintelligible) Landers. One Ryan Hart…I don’t remember some of them now (unintelligible)…Yeah, I just can’t think of them.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. What about dentists? Now, there are many dentists (unintelligible).
BLANCHE: (unintelligible) we did have doctor, uh…I’d know it if I could just think. (Unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Mm hmm. It does me too, because I think I know the name you’re getting ready to say and can’t remember, either.
BLANCHE: It was one. He made my first, he did my first filling.
INTERVIEWER: Did he really?
BLANCHE: And then, years on, later, I had to get false. And, he made them. And I went, then, after he passed away, I went down to Pocomoke (unintelligible). (unintelligible) doctor. I don’t know what his name is. Ah, he’s the one that made my teeth. He said, “I hope that I will be remembered and as long after the teeth are made--” (unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Isn’t that something? He must have been really good.
BLANCHE: He was good. I can’t think of his name, now. The one down in Pocomoke is Dr. Gibbons. That’s who I had to go to after my dentist—
INTERVIEWER: Ok. (Unintelligible) Um, now, doctors and dentists. Alright. Now, what would you do when a member of the family died? Was there an undertaker in the area?
BLANCHE: (unintelligible) Mr. Hearns. Will Hearns.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. That’s (unintelligible)—
BLANCHE: You know—
INTERVIEWER: That’s Elizabeth Hearns’ father?
BLANCHE: Hmm?
INTERVIEWER: Elizabeth Hearns?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Her father?
BLANCHE: (unintelligible) her last name—
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible)
BLANCHE: Do you know her?
INTERVIEWER: Yes. I know her, yes. She is a dear lady. I like her. But, it was her dad. Ok.
BLANCHE: He was the undertaker.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Now, would…Today, when somebody dies, they come get the body—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --They take it into—
BLANCHE: No—
INTERVIEWER: --the funeral home. (Unintelligible)
BLANCHE: They didn’t do that then.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. What—
BLANCHE: They stayed at home.
INTERVIEWER: They stayed right in the home.
BLANCHE: They would come out, and, uh, get your, make the arrangements with you. And then, on the day of the burial, why, they come back.
INTERVIEWER: Come back again.
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And, uh, would family members stay with the deceased?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright.
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: So, that was, they weren’t left—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --by (unintelligible). Ok. And if people, if they were going to pay their respects—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Would come to your home?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: What about…I know now, there’s some sort of tradition, when you come to the home, you bring food.
BLANCHE: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Was that back then?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: You just came to pay your respects and leave.
BLANCHE: When my husband died in, ah, thirty-, I think it was ’35—and there was one cake—
INTERVIEWER: I’ll be darned.
BLANCHE: --And, I never knew who brought it.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. That was just a tradition that wasn’t—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --here.
BLANCHE: Yes. (Unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: It’s just something that came later.
BLANCHE: And, nowadays, it’s a full meal.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Right. It is. Um, were burials usually on family lots or—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Out in the, on the, uh, on the grounds—
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: --usually.
BLANCHE: And ours is in Snow Hill. To the Methodist cemetery.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, ok. Alright. Now, did you ever go ice skating?
BLANCHE: No. (LAUGHING) I went one time. It wasn’t out in a pond. It was just…Around home, there was a lot of water and the ice. And, I, I was skating on that and fell backwards. And I thought I was killed, almost. And that ended up the ice.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. So, you didn’t do that anymore?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Now, did you ever go to Public Landing?
BLANCHE: Many, many times.
INTERVIEWER: You did?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. When you were living out to Piney Grove, out there…I remember hearing sometimes about people would come to Mount Olive Church on Wednesday and then go Thursday down to Forester’s Day.
BLANCHE: That’s true. My father, he, of course there weren’t any cars. He’d take his wagon. He put seats in it. And, Mother would take sheets and make a tent to put over it. And he would have that filled up Wednesday night from the church from the (unintelligible). And, I think maybe he charged thirty-five cents a head. A person.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. So, they could leave their horses and buggies at Mount Olive—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, that was neat!
BLANCHE: And then, sometimes, it wasn’t, it wasn’t all the time, and Mother, the next day—She would take we children down.
INTERVIEWER: Oh! Did you enjoy it?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you go in bathing?
BLANCHE: No. Not too much. Now, when my children come along, they went in bathing.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. There was a big difference, wasn’t there?
BLANCHE: Big difference!
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Now, you all would go down in cars, also. Right?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: And, that made a difference. But, you still, would you go very often?
BLANCHE: No. About once a year.
INTERVIEWER: About once a year. (Unintelligible) all that. Ok. Now, where did your children, How many children did you have? I don’t know.
BLANCHE: Me? I had, uh, four.
INTERVIEWER: Four? Ok. And, where did they go to school?
BLANCHE: Uh, they went to school in Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. There were buses—
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: --by that time?
BLANCHE: Yeah. Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. (Unintelligible)
BLANCHE: There was a long space of time.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Ok. Because you were married in 1916?
BLANCHE: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: And when was your first child born?
BLANCHE: Where?
INTERVIEWER: When?
BLANCHE: 1918. That’s Bill.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, ok. (Unintelligible) right under us. (Unintelligible) and he’s not quite seventy, right?
BLANCHE: No. I think he’ll be sixty-nine. He’s either sixty-eight or sixty-nine in January.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. He’s still a young ‘un. He’s still young.
BLANCHE: Yes. But you know, sometimes, he thinks he’s old.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear! He’s got a long way to go to get old!
BLANCHE: To catch me, anyhow!
INTERVIEWER: He does, indeed. Um…Do you remember the storm of 1933 or anything about it?
BLANCHE: Very much so!
INTERVIEWER: What do you remember about it? You remem-, you were still living out by the Furnace?
BLANCHE: (unintelligible). Yes. Well, I never saw anything like it. It was…We were on the farm and we were surrounded by water. There was a creek on each side of us. And the only way we had to get out was the boat around by the Old Furnace. And come out and get to Snow Hill Road. And the trees were, and all the telephone lines were down. There were telephones in that day. And, it was, it was just terrible, I thought.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And the wind was really (unintelligible)?
BLANCHE: The wind was really strong. Very, very.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Did you, um...Was there…How about the water rising in the creeks—
BLANCHE: Well—
INTERVIEWER: --around you? Was that a problem?
BLANCHE: It was impossible to get over it.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, ok. Now, that was Red House Road?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. And the bridge there? You just couldn’t do it?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Nor at Furnace Town, either?
BLANCHE: Hmm?
INTERVIEWER: At the Furnace, either? You couldn’t get over the bridge?
BLANCHE: Well, there was the one place at the Furnace. There was a bridge that, uh, it was high. And, we did get over that. But it was three or four days before we could even do that.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear! Alright. Because I, I, I hear a lot about the water at Public Landing.
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: You know, from the bay?
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: But, I’ve never been able to ascertain if the river rose, also.
BLANCHE: Well, the river rose—and it was, um…It was just impassible. That was all.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Um, you mentioned you had telephones. When did you get telephones, about? Did you have them at your, before you got married?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, you did?
BLANCHE: Mm hmm. That was, uh…I guess I was about fourteen or fifteen years old when—we got our first telephone at home.
INTERVIEWER: What about electricity?
BLANCHE: We had none.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. You never did have that.
BLANCHE: No. Uh, lamps.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Did you have to clean them?
BLANCHE: Oh, yes!
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my!
BLANCHE: And fill them with oil.
INTERVIEWER: Fill them with oil. Uh, now, when did you get electricity? Once you were married out at the farm?
BLANCHE: Well, now, we didn’t have it on our farm.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, you didn’t?
BLANCHE: No. We didn’t have electricity out there.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness! That was really something, wasn’t it?
BLANCHE: Well, it was all—
INTERVIEWER: You would have had to pay for it, and put the poles up and get them in, wouldn’t you?
BLANCHE: Yes. Well, I had a telephone. We had that on the farm. But, we didn’t have electricity.
INTERVIEWER: Didn’t have electricity. Ok. Um, do you remember your first car? First car. Now did your—
BLANCHE: Yes. (LAUGHING)
INTERVIEWER: Did your family get a car?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: It was not until you were married?
BLANCHE: After I was…We were married in 1918. Bill was just a little fella. Well, just a baby.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Where did you go to get your car?
BLANCHE: Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: In Snow Hill.
BLANCHE: J. Herman Perdue. You’ve heard of him?
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I have. Did you know how to drive?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Did it make any difference? You just got in and drove?
BLANCHE: Did what?
INTERVIEWER: Did, did you have to take training to learn how to drive it?
BLANCHE: No. Honey, I didn’t drive it for some time after we got the car. About (unintelligible). And, uh, my husband did the driving.
INTERVIEWER: He did?
BLANCHE: After a while, I learned to drive.
INTERVIEWER: What kind was it?
BLANCHE: Ford.
INTERVIEWER: A Ford. Did he like it?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: I’ll bet so. Now, did he get his car before or after he got a tractor?
BLANCHE: Honey, we didn’t have a tractor.
INTERVIEWER: You didn’t have a tractor?
BLANCHE: It was all horses.
INTERVIEWER: All horses he still used?
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: But, he had a car?
BLANCHE: Had a car.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Goodness gracious! Um, and he grew…Now, did you do, was it too late for strawberries by the time you all got married?
BLANCHE: No. No. We still had strawberries.
INTERVIEWER: You still did strawberries? Ok. They were still—
BLANCHE: No. Just before we were married, uh, I could, uh, (unintelligible) put up some strawberries. I said, “If you don’t, when strawberry time comes, I’m going back home to Mother’s and pick strawberries.” So, he put out a nice (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Oh, good. And you raised enough of those to sell, also?
BLANCHE: Yes. Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. What other did you, what other money crop…I presume corn, you used as feed?
BLANCHE: Yeah. Wheat.
INTERVIEWER: What other thing—
BLANCHE: Wheat.
INTERVIEWER: Oh! You did raise wheat.
BLANCHE: We raised (unintelligible) wheat.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And would you take that to the mill or the Furnace?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Or was that out of operation?
BLANCHE: Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: In Snow Hill?
BLANCHE: Horace Payne.
INTERVIEWER: Alright.
BLANCHE: I think (unintelligible). Whether he was the first one or not (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Oh, going in. And, uh…Would you, would you have some of your corn ground into cornmeal?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Now, would that be done at Horace Payne’s also?
BLANCHE: No. Uh—
INTERVIEWER: Or was there a gristmill?
BLANCHE: --wait. I, Honey, I don’t…I believe we did (unintelligible). Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Ok. (Unintelligible) Did you have, did you make hominy?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, good.
BLANCHE: We had (unintelligible). We used a lot of it (unintelligible). Now, then, I can’t bear it.
INTERVIEWER: I don’t like it either. (Unintelligible) Um…I’m thinking to see if I’ve left something out that I wanted to talk about. Um, do you remember when we used to have trains around Snow Hill?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you go on them any?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: When?
BLANCHE: Well, quite a few times. First time I ever rode on the train was from, um, Basket Switch up Snow Hill. It didn’t take over fifteen minutes.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
BLANCHE: But, that was a thrill for us.
INTERVIEWER: I’ll bet it was.
BLANCHE: We lived about, uh…Daddy had, uh, lumber, timber that he had to take care of. We rode over to Cedartown to a (unintelligible). And my sister and I, one Friday night, took this train. Daddy took us to the station. And went in and stayed the weekend with my aunt and that was a thrill. And after that, we went to Ocean City several times on the train.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, you did?
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: What did you think of Ocean City?
BLANCHE: Well, (LAUGHTER) it was, it was what it is now.
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
BLANCHE: And, we went to Atlantic City two or three times on the train.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, you did?
BLANCHE: Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: That was really a trip!
BLANCHE: That was, really.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my dear! I think so! Now, but you still didn’t go in swimming?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: No. Ok. Um…there weren’t any trains going from Snow Hill to Salisbury, were there? It went from Pocomoke to Salisbury (unintelligible) Berlin?
BLANCHE: Yes. I think. Yes. There was from Snow Hill to Salisbury.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. But, it’d go, did it go by way of Berlin? I’m trying to think of train tracks, you know, running that way.
BLANCHE: Mm hmm. I, I, I don’t know, but, I know that I was over here to Sal- Salisbury with my aunt. She’d been real sick and I’d come to help her out. And, I wanted to go home one weekend. I went home on the train. So, I know there’s one going from Salisbury to Snow Hill.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Ok. (Unintelligible) Um, when you said you really didn’t do anything with steamboats—
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: --or the river—
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: --or traffic that much? Uh, did your dad go hunting?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Did he hunt squirrel or rabbits or anything like that? What about your husband?
BLANCHE: He was. He was a bird hunter.
INTERVIEWER: He was?
BLANCHE: And, uh, rabbit really, too.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And you cooked them?
BLANCHE: Oh, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. That would, that—
BLANCHE: That was a treat!
INTERVIEWER: I’ll bet so! What about deer? Did he hunt deer?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Were there that many deer around here—
BLANCHE: There wasn’t at that time, no.
INTERVIEWER: I thought that. Somebody else was saying that they, that there weren’t that many deer—
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: --in the area (unintelligible). Uh, now, living out in the woods like you did all of your life, were you ever afraid out in the woods, of animals or things—
BLANCHE: No. There wasn’t such thing that hardly, in the, then (unintelligible) in the woods as there is now. There was squirrels and rabbits and, uh, possums.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. But nothing—
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: There weren’t any bears?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: There weren’t any wildcats?
BLANCHE: Never heard of it.
INTERVIEWER: Never heard of any of those?
BLANCHE: Huh uh.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Now, living as you did, near the Furnace, were there any stories about…You know, the Pocomoke Forest now, have lots of stories about it.
BLANCHE: Yeah. I know.
INTERVIEWER: And weird things that happen. But, when you were growing up, were you aware of any of these kinds of things?
BLANCHE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. They have come afterwards?
BLANCHE: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible) Um, I’ll ask you, but you may not be able to answer…You remember Prohibition? Uh, when you couldn’t buy a drink in the 1920’s?
BLANCHE: Oh, yeah.
INTERVIEWER: I heard the Pocomoke Forest had quite a few stills in it.
BLANCHE: Very true.
INTERVIEWER: That is true. And, we’ll have to wait a few more years before we find out who had them and where they were.
BLANCHE: Now, on, when we were living on the farm, there was, um, a man in back of us—had a still.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my!
BLANCHE: Of course, I never saw it. But, people would go back and get, buy their moonshine. They called it “moonshine.”
INTERVIEWER: Moonshine. Alright. I’ll be darned! They did that? Alright. Now—
BLANCHE: Now, this was after—long before my husband passed away.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Right. This would have been in the ‘20’s.
BLANCHE: Yes. Mm hmm.
INTERVIEWER: You know, well into the…Alright. Now, the Depression came along. Did it effect you?
BLANCHE: Very much!
INTERVIEWER: It did?
BLANCHE: It did. We lost everything we had.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness!
BLANCHE: Lost our shirt.
INTERVIEWER: Now, did you, had you been using the bank for, you know, you’d use the bank? You had money in the bank?
BLANCHE: Well, we had, we didn’t have much money in the bank, but we could use it.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. So you used—
BLANCHE: --what we did have.
INTERVIEWER: You lost what was there?
BLANCHE: Well, that was the year, uh, the potatoes—and we got hundreds of barrels of potatoes.
INTERVIEWER: Right. And, they didn’t sell?
BLANCHE: Well, I think we, maybe we sold, we maybe we sold a few, but not many.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And they were—
BLANCHE: And, they rotted in the barrel. We didn’t even get enough to pay for your barrel.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, dear! That was (unintelligible).
BLANCHE: And, that was where we lost our shirt.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Did you go hungry?
BLANCHE: Go hungry?
INTERVIEWER: Right.
BLANCHE: No—
INTERVIEWER: No.
BLANCHE: We always had something to eat on the farm. Sometimes, it wasn’t what we wanted. But, we had something to eat.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And you could, you could make do?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: That way? But, it, it just set you back—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --a great deal. Ok. Were there many people around that, um, that you know of, that actually lost their farms, or, you know…Today, so many things are mortgaged, that, if something like that happens—
BLANCHE: Well, of course, ours was mortgaged—but, it was, uh…We still lost it.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Isn’t that something?
BLANCHE: Honey, I don’t, I can’t answer that.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Ok. Good enough. Um, did you need much cash? Not just during the Depression, but going back. As far as having cash money, did you need a lot of it for everyday living?
BLANCHE: No. You, you, you need it, but you didn’t get it.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. So, you, so, you didn’t know you needed it, sometimes?
BLANCHE: That’s right. We had, we had raised most of our food.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. So that took care of that.
BLANCHE: That took care of that.
INTERVIEWER: And you could trade off—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --with things, also.
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible)
BLANCHE: Milk. Not milk but butter.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Kept you (unintelligible)?
BLANCHE: And eggs, chickens.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Right. Did you kill chickens?
BLANCHE: Honey, if I had as many dollars for as many chickens (LAUGHTER), I wouldn’t have to worry!
INTERVIEWER: Oh, dear! Did you learn to do this as a young child?
BLANCHE: Honey, I don’t know when I started!
INTERVIEWER: Ok. It just seems you’ve always been doing it?
BLANCHE: Yes. It’s a good thing I started cooking when I was helping…Well, I helped Mother long before I started cooking. I was nine years old.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, for goodness sakes! And, you were cooking when you were nine?
BLANCHE: My mother was (unintelligible), and she said to me one day, she said, “Now, I want you, I’m going to tell you how to make bread—Now, go wash your hands. Roll your sleeves up.” Everybody wore long sleeves. She said, “Go wash your hands, roll your sleeves up, and wash your arms good. And you bring me…” She’d tell me the things to bring. Put it in a chair beside her bed. And, I made the bread. And I was nine years old.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, my goodness!
BLANCHE: And from then on, I went to cooking.
INTERVIEWER: Did you enjoy it?
BLANCHE: Well, I… (LAUGHTER)
INTERVIEWER: You didn’t have a choice?
BLANCHE: I didn’t have a choice. That’s right.
INTERVIEWER: No. But, do you like to cook now?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. It must not have turned you against it (unintelligible).
BLANCHE: No, it didn’t turn me against it (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: You learned to be…That’s how you learn (unintelligible).
BLANCHE: That’s how I learned.
INTERVIEWER: Just by experience. Um, if, if you wanted to go to Salisbury from Piney Grove, how would you go?
BLANCHE: …I know, but I don’t know how to say it.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. There wasn’t a Route 12?
BLANCHE: No. It was all a dirt road.
INTERVIEWER: Dirt roads. Ok. And, all that in the woods—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --up there. There’s a little, isn’t there a tiny creek or something—
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: --just across Piney Grove?
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. The Nassawango Creek ends up or starts there?
BLANCHE: Yes. (unintelligible) we’d have to go over that creek.
INTERVIEWER: Alright. Ok. You would, indeed. So, really, to get from Snow Hill to Salisbury, you had to do a lot of woods road—
BLANCHE: Yeah. That’s right.
INTERVIEWER: --for traveling.
BLANCHE: It was all woods road.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Did you learn to drive a team?
BLANCHE: Yes, indeed!
INTERVIEWER: You did? Did you ever have to handle the oxen or did your dad do that most of the time?
BLANCHE: What?
INTERVIEWER: The oxen? Driving the oxen (unintelligible)?
BLANCHE: No, I couldn’t do that. My sister could, but I couldn’t.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, she could?
BLANCHE: And, she was younger than I!
INTERVIEWER: Boy!
BLANCHE: She could, but I couldn’t.
INTERVIEWER: No. I, I don’t blame you because they’re big!
BLANCHE: Well, I didn’t know how to talk to them. You had to talk to them just like you did your team. But, I never learned how.
INTERVIEWER: And, your sister did. So, she could handle those.
BLANCHE: One time, this was after I was married, my husband and I went over home and…Cora was my sister— And, she was out in the field (unintelligible) oxen, working. So, he went out, said he thought he’d let her go to the house. And he (unintelligible). And, he started and he didn’t know how to talk to them. So, he told her, he told her, “You better go back and take them over.” He said, “I don’t know how to move them.” But, he had never had oxen around.
INTERVIEWER: Ok. And, they knew her and knew how to respond to her.
BLANCHE: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: I’ll be darned! Now, um, how old did you, did your mom and dad live to be?
BLANCHE: Mother was seventy-eight.
INTERVIEWER: Ok.
BLANCHE: And, I think Dad was eighty-…eighty-two or three (unintelligible).
INTERVIEWER: Ok. Back then?
BLANCHE: Yes. That was old!
INTERVIEWER: Yes. Yes, indeed! (Unintelligible) well…
END OF INTERVIEW