TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS FROM 1982 INTERVIEW
(Continued from last week)
INTERVIEWER: How ‘bout school?
MARAH: From the time I was little?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, yeah, Pocomoke High School as a student.
MARAH: Okay. When I went to high school, it was in an old building which
was where the Mac Center is now.
INTERVIEWER: Where it burnt down …
MARAH: Where it burned, mhmm. And in fact, the oldest building that was
built in about 1905.
INTERVIEWER: Right …
MARAH: They had about two stories.
INTERVIEWER: I know what you mean.
MARAH: And I came to the school from a brand new junior high school in
Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: Oh.
MARAH: And my impression was that the halls were so dark, and the floors
were oil, in order to keep them clean. Now, I don’t know what the procedure
was, but it definitely gave the impression of being very dark and dungeon-
like.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, right.
MARAH: When I first went, we had Latin classes in the hallway between the
main rooms,
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)
INTERVIEWER: Oh, right.
MARAH: But it was fun.
INTERVIEWER: What year did that burn down? Do you remember?
MARAH: I don’t know what year. The building I went to high school in burned
… I don’t remember. I don’t think … I might’ve been away at school ... I’m not
sure.
INTERVIEWER: So that was the …
MARAH: I started teaching in ’30 … ’33.
INTERVIEWER: Here?
MARAH: Mhmm.
INTERVIEWER: At the high school?
MARAH: No, the elementary school, primary school.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: But this building was gone at that point.
INTERVIEWER: But then after that building burnt down, they built the one on
Market Street that burnt down.
MARAH: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, Now I understand. I forgot about that one.
MARAH: Yeah, the building that I went to high school in, the building next to
it, where I had home economics in the basement. The building where I had
home economics was the one that burned when I was teaching. Probably in
the late 30’s or 40’s.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. You graduated from Pocomoke.
MARAH: I graduated from Pocomoke, and the graduation ceremony was in
the Mar-Va Theater.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) In the Mar-Va?
MARAH: In the Mar-Va Theater.
INTERVIEWER: Why didn’t they have a …
MARAH: Because they did not have an auditorium.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
MARAH: And, of course, our class was not as large. Maybe 46, 48 in the class.
INTERVIEWER: Bigger than the others, I think.
MARAH: Mhmm.
INTERVIEWER: Let’s see. How about discipline. In school.
MARAH: In school … I don’t remember any problems with discipline, really.
INTERVIEWER: I know you didn’t have any problems, did you?
MARAH: I don’t know. (Both laugh.)
INTERVIEWER: Were the teachers, do you think, more strict than they are
now?
MARAH: I think they were probably respected more.
INTERVIEWER: Mmm.
MARAH: And of course there were problems, I’m sure, but not, not problems
that you have today.
INTERVIEWER: What …
MARAH: No drug problems.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: No smoking. Very few really, like one big happy family.
INTERVIEWER: What subjects did you take in high school?
MARAH: French, algebra, geometry. Latin, English, history ... civics ... And
some way or other, I ... escaped high school by not having chemistry or
physics. And I had biology.
INTERVIEWER: What about trig?
MARAH: No.
INTERVIEWER: No trig.
MARAH: Nothing beyond geometry.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, you went to college right after high school?
MARAH: I went to Maryland State Normal School, which is now at Towson
Teachers College.
INTERVIEWER: Ah.
MARAH: It was just a two-year course.
INTERVIEWER: And you could teach after?
MARAH: I could teach.
INTERVIEWER: After two years?
MARAH: In the primary school. In the elementary school.
INTERVIEWER: Oh. How about sports, did they have any girls’ sports in your
high school?
MARAH: Volleyball. We had an event every year called relay. It was
competitive in the county. All the high schools met on this one particular day.
And we had relay races, volleyball, basketball. I well remember one
basketball relay I was in, that I’m sure my teammates could cheerfully drown
me.
(Both laugh.)
MARAH: I had some difficulty making a basket.
(Phone rings.)
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) Okay, we’ll pause.
INTERVIEWER: Boys. Dating.
MARAH: In high school.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: In high school, as I said before, we did not go out of the house
during the week. We had dates on Friday night. And a movie date. And,
except in the summertime, we had beach parties and dances. There really
wasn’t … well, we did have bowling. We did go bowling, we enjoyed that. We
went bowling in Ocean City.
INTERVIEWER: All the way to Ocean City?
MARAH: All the way to Ocean City.
(Both laugh.)
Continues next Saturday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.
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