Interview Begins
INTERVIEWER: Can you give me your parent’s names?
MARY: Yes, Edward F. Wilson and Margaret P. Wilson.
INTERVIEWER: And what was your mother’s maiden name?
MARY: Fulton.
INTERVIEWER: Were they from around here?
MARY: My dad was, my mother was from Pennsylvania.
INTERVIEWER: Where was your house located? You lived here in Pocomoke as a young child, didn’t you?
MARY: Do you know where the Weidema’s live out near Quinton? Actually, I was born in that house out there. It’s still there.
INTERVIEWER: It’s still there?
MARY: Grace Weidema lives in it.
INTERVIEWER: What kind of chores did you have to do when you were young?
MARY: Well, I helped with the washing on Monday morning. I was chambermaid. We didn’t have any toilets. In those days you had to go outside. Then I walked to school. That was Quinton School. That’s been torn down.
INTERVIEWER: How far did you have to walk to get to school?
MARY: About a mile.
INTERVIEWER: Was your dad a farmer? What kind of things did he grow?
MARY: He was a farmer and a carpenter. Both.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever help people outside your home, like at other people’s houses and help them?
MARY: No, I didn’t help anybody out then, but you see I went to business school and I worked. I was a bookkeeper.
INTERVIEWER: What kind of discipline did you have if you did something wrong? What did your parents do?
MARY: Slapped me. (laughs)
INTERVIEWER: In school, what kind of subjects were you taught?
MARY: Reading, writing, arithmetic.
INTERVIEWER: Was it all grades together?
MARY: From the first grade to the seventh.
INTERVIEWER: All in one room?
MARY: Two rooms.
INTERVIEWER: How about your church? What church did you go to?
MARY: Methodist Church at Quinton.
INTERVIEWER: How long did it usually last?
MARY: Hour and a half.
INTERVIEWER: What did you do for recreation?
MARY: Played ball and jumped rope.
INTERVIEWER: How about dating? Were you allowed to date?
MARY: Not until I was sixteen.
INTERVIEWER: Where did you go when you dated? What spot did you go to?
MARY: I went to Ocean City on a moonlight excursion.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ride the train there? How did you get there?
MARY: Rode the train.
INTERVIEWER: What was it like back then?
MARY: When I got to Ocean City that was the first time I had eaten in a hotel. They brought us a menu about that long and I didn’t know what in the world I wanted. We were with a couple of ladies I knew. They ordered their menus, I said well I’ll take some from them.
INTERVIEWER: What was it like, what was the boardwalk like and all?
MARY: Well it was not like it is today. Of course, It wasn’t as long as it is today. That was in 1914.
INTERVIEWER: How about your brothers and sisters?
MARY: I had two sisters.
INTERVIEWER: Did you all have to split up your chores at home?
MARY: Yes. I fried chicken all the time.
INTERVIEWER: Who helped your dad?
MARY: Well, of course, we were all girls so we couldn’t be much help that way. My sister Ida Belle, she did all the entertaining, she could talk, and I was bashful, I didn’t say much. Margaret, the youngest of us, she was so, well she could do most anything. She had a wonderful personality and good looking.
INTERVIEWER: What major events went on, what special occasions, dances, things like that?
MARY: We square danced in those days.
INTERVIEWER: Where was that held?
MARY: At William’s Point.
INTERVIEWER: Where is William’s Point at?
MARY: Down the river, you know, past Rehobeth.
NTERVIEWER: What were the businesses in town back then? Where did you go shopping for clothes and things like that?
MARY: I. H. Merrill.
INTERVIEWER: What was that a clothing store?
MARY: A clothing store.
INTERVIEWER: How about grocery stores?
MARY: Mr. Red Cluff had a store at Costen Station and that’s where we would buy our groceries.
INTERVIEWER: How about class structure, you know how there are some people had a whole lot of money, and the others were real poor? Was there a big distinction back then, or were you all just about the same?
MARY: All of us that went to Quinton were just about the same, all of us were poor.
(Continues next Saturday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.)
