13 Sep 2015 – Answers to Interview Questions 11-15 (Mother)

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On 19 Aug 2015, I posted 50 Interview Questions.  Following is a summary of answers to the next set of interview questions with my Mom.  We got a little out-of-order, so to stay on track, there are only 4 instead of 5 answers here.  Enjoy!

  1. What kind of games did you play growing up? Hopscotch and jump rope.  We also played marbles.  There were kids that played double dutch, but I never learned how to play.  I also played with dolls with artificial hair glued to the scalp.  Every Christmas I got a doll, and the first thing I did was comb and wash her hair.  I cried when all her hair came off by the end of the day.   I got a doll every year for christmas until I was 13 yrs old and then we got a piano – it was the worse christmas ever when we got the piano.
  2. What was your favorite toy and why?  My favorite toys were the dolls with hair.  I loved combing their hair but the glue always came off when I washed it.  A doll would last at most a couple of days but ultimately they needed their hair washed.  🙂
  3. Did you receive an allowance?  No, I did not receive an allowance.  My mother gave us money when we needed it for school, bus (fare was $.30), movies, etc.
  4. What school activities and sports did you participate in?  I wanted to be a cheerleader but I could not tumble, so I joined the pep squad while in high school.  I always enjoyed football, and Central High School was the first african american school to play at Ladd Stadium (up the street from our home in Mobile, AL.)

 

 

Between The Dashes

9 Sep 2015 – Our Summer Vacations in Quitman, MS

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Eva Jasper took her granddaughters Alice and Marce to Quitman, MS every summer for about two weeks to visit Amanda Jasper (Grandma Mandy), their great-grandmother.  Alice had mixed feelings about the summer visits to Quitman.  I think the girls really enjoyed spending time with their grandmother and great-grandmother, but Quitman was so different from Mobile, AL.  Quitman was truly the country!

Alice remembers riding the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio (GM&O) Railroad to Quitman.  The train was like a greyhound bus that made many stops along the way.  People could bring chickens, goats or sheep on the train and Alice was afraid of anything with feathers.  See the GM&O map below.  When Momma Eva, Alice and Marce arrived in  Quitman, Grandma Mandy came to pick them up in a horse and buggy.

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8 Sep 2015 – Answers to Interview Questions 6-10 (Mother)

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On 19 Aug 2015, I posted 50 Interview Questions.  Answers to questions 1-5 located here.   Enjoy the answers for questions 6 through 10 from my interview with my Mom!

  • What is your earliest childhood memory?
    • I remember hearing on the radio that the war ended in 1945.   We were playing across the street.  We used to play across the street with the other kids in the trees and swing off the tree limbs.  I was swinging on one of the tree limbs and it broke.
    • At the time, we just had radio, no television.  The radio had murder mysteries acted out by various people.
  • Describe the personalities of your family members.
    • Father (Melzar Williams)
      • My father always worked.  I remember him rushing from one job to another.
      • He sold the timber off his wife’s property in Quitman, MS without her knowledge.
      • Periodically, he told stories about his time in the Merchant Marines.  He joined as a cook and used a recipe to make the food – he became a baker doing cakes, pies, etc.  If the recipes didn’t turn out there was so much food that the mistakes could be tossed and you could start over until you got it right. The ship could not dock in New Guinea so the supplies had to be transported to shore.
      • Daddy Chappy  played the trumpet at a lot of the events.

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4 Sep 2015 – Answers to Interview Questions 1-5 (Mother)

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IMG_1785

On 19 Aug 2015, I posted 50 Interview Questions.  In the past, when my Mom and I discussed her childhood, we really started in the middle of the story.  I really appreciated the survey questions because they provided a good framework for capturing family history.  In fact, I learned more about my Mom’s environment than I had in the past.  I urge anyone in the family history/genealogy business to use interview questions.  These questions were awesome!

As promised, following is a summary of the first set of answers from the interview with my Mom.  Enjoy!

  • What is your full name? Alice Lauraetta
    • Why did your parents select this name for you?  Alice was my grandmother’s name (father’s side), Laura was my great-grandmother (father’s side), and great-aunt Etta (father’s side).
    • Did you have a nickname?  No, not when young.  In college, they called me Chappy because everyone knew him.  Besides, my sister and I went to the same college.  She was two years ahead of me in college.

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2 Sep 2015 – Davis Avenue

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During the 1950s, my grandparents owned a night club for about a year on Davis Avenue.  By the 1960s, Davis Avenue was the hub for Negroes in Mobile.  There were grocery stores, night clubs, doctors, lawyers, barbers, hair salons…everything needed to support the community.

I couldn’t find a good picture of Davis Ave.  My mother told me that she never went on that side of town because the neighborhood had gotten really rough – people fighting, gun shots, stealing, etc.  I imagine it must have looked like this:

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