INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Interviewer: What kind of businesses did they have downtown?
Elmer: Well, there were many independent stores. There were no chain stores,
of course. For many years we still had 1 or 2 large general stores and we had
a department store, too. The general stores carried just about everything
from bacon to a saddle and harness. The department stores carried all kinds
of furniture and house furnishings and things of that nature. And dry goods.
And, of course, there were no such things as ready-made dresses. Men could
buy suits. And shoes and boots and things like that. But they bought the
goods and carried them home and sewed the dresses.
Interviewer: Do you remember the millinery stores?
Elmer: Yeah, the women had their hats and if they didn’t have enough money
to buy a new hat each year, they carried it back and the milliner sewed new
ribbons on it and so forth. And they’d say “Oh, you have a new hat!” but it
was the same one she’d had for ten years but they’d sew new spangles on it
to make it look different.
Interviewer: Same base, but different top. What other kind of stores did you
have? Like ice cream stores?
Elmer: The ice cream parlors were separate. Usually they were a candy store
or sometimes they had a drug and candy store. In the old days you’d get an
ice cream cone for a nickel. A great big dip, all you could eat, for ten cents
. And Coca Cola for a nickel. Many of them were called (audio not clear) and
they were popular for a while. A lot of people drank Coke because we were on
Prohibition from 1919 until….I don’t know what year it came back…
Interviewer: Were there a lot of people in town who were trying to get around
Prohibition?
Elmer: Oh, yeah, we had our bootleggers. One of our mayors wanted to catch
the bootleggers so he told one of his assistants to go out to the different
stores to buy…and of course, as soon as the bootleggers saw who it was,
well, instead of putting whiskey in it, they took it to the back room and
poured some coffee in it, in the bottle. And they had 6 or 8 samples, and
these guys were hauled off to the courthouse by the local magistrate to stand
trial. But their lawyers said “Well, where is the evidence?” and they had these
bottles and they took the corks out and smelled it and said, “that’s not
whiskey!” and the case was thrown out. But I did see them, when I was
working at the store there, come out with 3 bootleggers at a time. They’d
bring them out with their whiskey. Sometimes they got a fine and the next
day they were back again. Sometimes they went away for a while, but not
much.
Interviewer: You had a police department in town?
Elmer: Yeah, we had one Chief of Police and a nightwatchman.
Interviewer: And that was it?
Elmer: For many years. And then, sometimes on Saturday or a holiday, they
had an extra man on. And this went on for many years. Of course, old Chief
Brittingham was rough with them.
Interviewer: Any relation to you?
Elmer: No. Different. He did more than….they got 10 policemen on now and as
far as actual keeping order, he did more than 10 of them. And if you pulled
away from him, he’d hit you.
Interviewer: He was pretty straight…
Elmer: Yeah, they were scared of him. The blacks, were especially scared of
him. We had a lot of foreigners…we had these migratory laborers from Cuba
and Mexico and everywhere, to pick crops. But, we don’t get them anymore.
And they’d be in town and stir up, and the blacks, our blacks, were always
afraid of them. But, he kept order. We didn’t have too much trouble.
Interviewer: So, you didn’t have too much trouble?
Elmer: Now we’ve got 8 or 10. They’re alright. They are nice fellas. Making
plenty of money. They don’t care.
Continues next Saturday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.
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