TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS FROM 1982 INTERVIEW
(Continued from last week)
INTERVIEWER: Did you go to Ocean City very often, I mean, or was that just
for, like …
MARAH: No, not very often.
INTERVIEWER: How about swimming, did you go swimming?
MARAH: We didn’t have any place around here we could go swimming,
except the ocean. The river was not fit for swimming, and we did not have
swimming pools. And consequently, most of the ones my age except the
boys who lived around the water like probably Andy, or who, you know, were
a little bit braver,
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: The girls didn’t learn to swim very much. I taught myself later, after I
was even out of Towson. And I can swim as long as I can hold my breath.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)
MARAH: That’s not very far (laughs).
INTERVIEWER: Did you only date boys from Pocomoke, or did you venture
out to Snow Hill and …
MARAH: No, in high school, it was just Pocomoke.
INTERVIEWER: Were there any big hangouts downtown or anywhere?
MARAH: Clarke’s Drugstore. Which is where the pharmacy is now.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
MARAH: Was really the only hangout. And when we’d go there, they had a
fountain, a soda fountain. And in fact, when I was in high school, every
afternoon, the girls dressed up and walked downtown to buy a loaf of bread
or quart of milk or some little thing. But we walked downtown and … There
really wasn’t much to do, we read a lot, but we did have, at one time, we did
have a tennis court on the high school property. It was not a very good one.
And we played a little tennis, that was it. We played badminton in each
others’ yards, but we didn’t have courses in tennis like they do in school
now.
INTERVIEWER: Where did you go to church, if you went?
MARAH: I went to church at First Baptist Church.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, yeah, that’s …
MARAH: In Pocomoke.
INTERVIEWER: Pocomoke, right.
MARAH: I had joined the church in Baltimore, First Baptist Church in
Baltimore at the same time my father joined. He had been a Methodist.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: And we joined together one Easter. And then when we came here, we
confirmed the membership.
INTERVIEWER: How did you go to Sunday school and then church, then?
MARAH: Well, Sunday school was in the morning, and church, and EYCU in
the afternoon. Well, late-afternoon. Like young people’s games, you know.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: And then church at night.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) Oh, so all Sunday was devoted to church.
MARAH: All Sunday was devoted to church.
INTERVIEWER: All right. What about the population in Pocomoke in 1920?
MARAH: I am not very good at remembering figures. But I will say this: We
knew everyone we met on the street. There were no strangers. You’d go
down the street, and everyone you saw, you knew personally. I’m not sure
about population at the time.
INTERVIEWER: How about a class structure? Was there any, like, very rich,
poor, was there very much difference between those two?
MARAH: There probably was, but I was not aware of it at the time. Now, I knew
the ones in my class who had much more money than I had.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
MARAH: And I knew the ones who didn’t have as much, but I think ... There
was no distinction as far as class. Possibly, we chose our friends from the
class we were actually in, not realizing it, really.
INTERVIEWER: So it was unspoken.
MARAH: Unspoken really. But, I don’t think, as far as my class in high school,
no one was looked down on. Three years ago, we had our 50th reunion. And
almost the whole class was there except three who had died and one in
California who could not come, and one in Pennsylvania who could not
come. And it was really nice because we had not had any reunion.
INTERVIEWER: None?
MARAH: None.
INTERVIEWER: And you managed to go to 50?
MARAH: We managed to go to 50, and had a really good time.
INTERVIEWER: Wow. I’m sure. How ‘bout law and order in Pocomoke? Did
you have a police force, or … ?
MARAH: I remember one policeman, Mr. Strallon. An older man, or at that time
he seemed older to me. He also directed the band. We had a town band, and
he directed the band at that time.
INTERVIEWER: Was it high school students in the band, or the whole
community?
MARAH: No, when I was in high school, I don’t think we had a high school
band. Like the one that Mr. Fullout was in.
INTERVIEWER: Right, I heard …
MARAH: When my father was a young man, they had quite a town band.
INTERVIEWER: I’ve seen pictures.
MARAH: And I’ve seen pictures. He had a bandwagon and played the
trombone.
INTERVIEWER: How about hanging? Did you ever go to a hanging?
MARAH: No, never did.
INTERVIEWER: Wow.
MARAH: There was a tree on Snow Hill, the road between Snow Hill and
Berlin. They called it the hanging tree. But no, I never did, no.
INTERVIEWER: I know I wouldn’t’ve gone to a hanging ….
Continues next Saturday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.
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