Recollections from generations past (Elmer A. Brittingham -6)

 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.