TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS FROM 1980 INTERVIEW
INTERVIEWER: Who was the first to get the first car around here?
MARY: It was either Mr. John Houston or Dr. John Phipps.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember getting your first car?
MARY: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: What was it like?
MARY: It was called a Liberty. In fact, we didn’t have a car until 1920 and I was
the driver.
INTERVIEWER: I bet that was fun. Do you remember going to any Farmer’s
Day or any fairs?
MARY: Oh Yes. Pocomoke had it’s fair. That was a big excursion. Then we
went to Red Hills the first Wednesday in August, and then the first Thursday
we went to Farmer’s Day.
INTERVIEWER: What happened at Farmer’s Day?
MARY: Well it was a picnic and we usually went in the water that morning and
people who could swim, if they enjoyed swimming, and the rest sat away.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember much about Assateague. Did you go over there?
MARY: No. We used to go to Pope’s Island Coast Guard Station at George
Island Landing. We would go by boat and then we’d walk across the sand
and the marsh and go to the beach and go into the ocean.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember an alligator named Jake?
MARY: No.
INTERVIEWER: How about any legends or superstitions around here?
MARY: There was a farm hand on the Pocomoke Road that had a snake that
walked.
INTERVIEWER: It walked?
MARY: Yes, it would take a few steps. I had never seen it but that was one of
the legends. I don’t remember the name of the first one, but some man who
was an oysterman, he worked down in the oyster bay and sailed, was lost at
sea. His wife used to say that she heard him calling her sometimes at night.
INTERVIEWER: How about the storms?
MARY: Of course, the one in 1933 when the inlet was cut. It’s the one I
remember because it occurred on my wedding anniversary. My husband and
I had planned a little trip, but we weren’t able take it. We had big one in 1954, I
believe it was, and 63, I believe. But I don’t remember any real bad ones when
I was a child.
.INTERVIEWER: How about big snows? Do you remember any big snowstorms?
MARY: Oh yes. Back in, everywhere in 1946 we had one. A real blizzard. The
men had to go to Snow Hill and my husband and three other men here in
town started but they didn’t get any further than beyond Girdletree. They
couldn’t make it.
INTERVIEWER: What type of music was popular when you were a child? What
type of music did you listen to?
MARY: Well when we started dancing, I think first it was waltz. I remember the
turkey trot and the …..
INTERVIEWER: Were there any fairgrounds? Did Stockton have a fair?
MARY: Well the fire company used to have a fair in the summertime. Then we
had medicine shows.
INTERVIEWER: What were they like?
MARY: They were mostly similar to puppet shows. Punch and Judy and
things of that sort. And I remember one summer or two, Stockton had a
couple nights of entertainment similar to minstrels.
INTERVIEWER: What was that?
MARY: Well Pocomoke had this minstrel and they would put on shows and
have music.
INTERVIEWER: Sort of like a festival?
MARY: Somewhat similar.
INTERVIEWER: Is there anything else that you remember that we haven’t talked about?
MARY: In 1926 the new school was built in Stockton. It was one of the first
more or less modern schools in the county. As I say that was finished in 1926.
And it stood for fifty years or more, but it’s been demolished now. Then the
children were later bused to Snow Hill or Pocomoke, which hurt Stockton.
Stockton had a very disastrous fire in 1906. I don’t remember much about
that, but I remember a few things.
INTERVIEWER: What part of Stockton?
MARY: The middle of the town. They were all wooden buildings at that time.
There were two stores that were destroyed and the hotel.
INTERVIEWER: What was the hotel name?
MARY: (unintelligible). Mrs. (audio not clear).
INTERVIEWER: Is that a place that everybody went?
MARY: Well in those days, salesmen traveled on horse and carriage. There
was a livery stable adjacent to the hotel. These men stayed at the hotel and
would put their horses at the livery stable.
INTERVIEWER: Was there a place in town that all of the adults and everybody
sort of hung around?
MARY: (audio not clear) office, were primary for the men. He liked to play
dominoes. In those days when people went to the store to do their buying,
there were usually benches or chairs around the pot belly stove and they
could sit around and chat.
INTERVIEWER: See if you can think of anything else.
MARY: The night of the fire, there were a couple of stores in front. The lady
had a millenery shop at the time, came out of her shop with her nickel lamp
in her hand and was walking down towards the bay and the other lady had
put as much of her yarn and such, as much as she could, in a baby carriage
to save it. The pet dog of a friend of mine was just there and she ran up the
railroad track.
INTERVIEWER: What did you normally do on Sunday? Did you have a big
dinner?
MARY: Yes. We usually had a big dinner around one o’clock. In the morning I
went next door to the Methodist Church to Sunday School. My mother was
speaker, and we had to act older. And then in the afternoon we went to the
Episcopal Sunday School and mother was superintendent there, and then
they asked her to lead. So that’s what, we went to church mostly on Sundays.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much.
MARY: You are certainly welcome.
(A recollections interview with another long-time resident will be published next Saturday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.)
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