{"id":9552,"date":"2023-04-27T22:03:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T22:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/?page_id=9552"},"modified":"2023-04-27T22:03:48","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T22:03:48","slug":"noel-and-lynnelle-funchess-oral-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/noel-and-lynnelle-funchess-oral-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Noel and Lynnelle Funchess Oral History"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”No Line”][vc_column_text]\n

Noel and Lynnelle Funchess Oral History<\/span><\/h1>\n[\/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line”][page_submenu alignment=”center” sticky=”true” bg_color=”#008542″ link_color=”#ffffff”][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/manuscripts-and-guides\/” title=”Manuscripts & Subject Guides<\/strong>” id=”1682632257896-9″ tab_id=”1682632257897-9″] [\/page_link][page_link link_url=” https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/guides-to-the-collection-page\/” title=”Collections Portal<\/strong>” id=”1682632257909-0″ tab_id=”1682632257910-5″] [\/page_link][page_link title=”Visit<\/strong>” id=”1682632267229-2″ tab_id=”1682632267230-4″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/visit\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Make a Request<\/strong>” id=”1682632269303-0″ tab_id=”1682632269304-2″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/requests\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”About Us<\/strong>” id=”1682632270210-3″ tab_id=”1682632270211-10″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments-archives-museum-about-us\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Yearbooks Online<\/strong>” id=”1682632271155-2″ tab_id=”1682632271155-3″ link_url=” https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/yearbooks-alumni-magazines-delta-state-histories\/”][\/page_link][\/page_submenu][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Interview with Noel and Lynnelle Funchess\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0June 22, 2007\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 OH# 370<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interviewed by Emily Weaver and Cam McMillen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Transcribed by W. Ray<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is Emily Weaver and Cam McMillen and we are speaking with Noel Funchess and Lynnelle Funchess and we are in the Capps Archives and we are talking about the historic neighborhood in downtown Cleveland.<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you agree to share with the public any statements that you may make?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you very much.\u00a0 Alright Noel can you state for me your name and spell it for me?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 First name, Noel, N-o-e-l.\u00a0 Last name, Funchess, F-u-n-c-h-e-s-s.\u00a0 Which is technically a Junior, although my father is deceased.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And Lynelle?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lynnelle.\u00a0 L-y-n-n-e-l-l-e.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want my maiden name?<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mayatte.\u00a0 M-a-y-a-t-t-e\u00a0 Funchess.\u00a0 F-u-n-c-h-e-s-s.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 And all the questions that I ask ya\u2019ll today, you can each answer any way you want to.\u00a0 You can feed off of each other.\u00a0 Don\u2019t feel like anybody has to be silent.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, Noel can you give me your occupation?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Retired.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And before you retired what did you do?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nellybelle and I had a dollar store in downtown Cleveland.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And your current residence?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1210 Farmer Street in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And how long have ya\u2019ll lived there?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nellybelle has lived there a long time.\u00a0 I just moved in when I came back and romanced her.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Early \u201870\u2019s.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Alright now we are going to go back to childhood times.\u00a0 Okay, Noel, how long have you lived in Cleveland?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was born in Cleveland in 1940 at the old Cleveland Hospital just over there where the Nursing School is now.\u00a0 Sat over there I should say.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit different isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes it is.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And Lynnelle would you prefer for me to call you Lynnelle or Nellybelle?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nellybelle will be fine.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, would you care to share with us when you were born?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was born in 1941.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And have you always lived in Cleveland as well?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, I moved here when we \u2013 I was in the second grade.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So what year would that have been?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t figure that in my head.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 About \u201948.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, about \u201948.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, and Noel, growing up in Cleveland, how many different addresses have you lived at?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, in Cleveland, one, two, three, four.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And could you tell me a little bit about where you started out?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure, when I was born \u2013 I should say five.\u00a0 When I was born my parents lived on Court Street in a house that is no longer there.\u00a0 It was a duplex that has been replaced by some apartments.\u00a0 My first memory from the mid \u201840\u2019s is on Victoria Avenue, about the 300 block as I recall.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 South.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 South Victoria, yes.\u00a0 Really kind of right behind where Albert Wiggins lives.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, so what was that first memory?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Really, just in that house.\u00a0 Growing up in that area.\u00a0 My father, across the street there were no houses at that time and this was during the war in the early, probably \u201943 or \u201944 first thing I can remember, and I vividly recall he had a victory garden as so many people did at that time.\u00a0 My father did not serve in WWII, he was older and never drafted.\u00a0 But he had a victory garden I remember at that time.\u00a0 And about 1945 we moved briefly to Tunica, Mississippi and lived there for less than a year before coming back, at which time we moved to Andrews Avenue, right behind Kossman\u2019s in a house there on a corner, right behind where Kossman\u2019s is located today, and lived there for about a year until my father built a house at 700 Maple Street, which is on the corner of Maple and Second Avenue on the northwest corner.\u00a0 It is a two story house.\u00a0 Then about in the early \u201850\u2019s, he built a house on College Street, 725 College Street, and lived there until I graduated from Mississippi State and moved away.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And then your last residence is your current one?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Current one is coming back, when I came back to romance my high school sweetheart here, and I always said you ought to always marry a woman that owns a house.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You did good.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s much better than buying a house.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, you\u2019ve talked about your dad and the victory garden, do you remember any of the neighbors that you would have had?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, next to me were the Pleasant\u2019s.\u00a0 Dobie Pleasant was Mr. Pleasant\u2019s first name.\u00a0 His wife was Thelma.\u00a0 He managed the gin that sits there right there where Brown\u2019s Scrap Iron is today.\u00a0 It is no longer there and hasn\u2019t been for years.\u00a0 His wife, I think Thelma may have taught school, but at the time she was a housewife.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She was a graduate of Delta State.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, she graduated from Delta State about the same time my father did, which was \u201920, I\u2019m sorry, \u201932 I think, somewhere along in there.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dobie?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dobie Pleasant P-l-e-a-s-a-n-t.\u00a0 And his first name was Dobie B-o-b-i-e.\u00a0 He served in World War II through the National Guard.\u00a0 He was away, I remember when he came back home after the war.\u00a0 Randy Pleasant, of course my childhood friend and playmates and we grew up there together.\u00a0 And at that time, running behind those houses, I know James Wiggins referred to it in his write up, there was, he called it a bayou, it was really in my opinion a ditch, that ran diagonally along behind those houses and crossed under Victoria there at about Victoria and College Street.\u00a0 Which it was dry most of the time.\u00a0 The only time it had water in it was when it rained.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was that the scene of many afternoon activities?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many afternoon activities after the Ellis Theatre after we had been inspired by Sunset Carson or Roy Rogers or other bad guys who had those six shooters that could shoot twenty-seven times and kill people without drawing a drop of blood.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 Well who were some of the folks that you hung out with, played with?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Randy Pleasant who doesn\u2019t live here anymore.\u00a0 Still here, Nicky Griffith still lives here who is married Anita Griffith who has Griffith Real Estate.\u00a0 Nicky has been here that whole time.\u00a0 Ned Mitchell, whom I really didn\u2019t meet until high school age \u2013 he moved here from Skene and is still here today.\u00a0 The Denton Family, Joe Denton was my age.\u00a0 He no longer lives here but we grew up together.\u00a0 Butler Denton who runs Denton\u2019s now still lives in Cleveland today, was a little younger, and as most grammar school age, we didn\u2019t have much to do with him other than try to run from him.\u00a0 Mike Sanders who is here was growing up at that time and he is still here.\u00a0 Nell who can you think of that is here today that we grew up today that is still in Cleveland?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Off the top of my head I can\u2019t think.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ve named a lot of young men, were there many girls to play with?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes, yes, yes.\u00a0 The Dalton Family had, gosh Mrs. Dalton must have had about six or eight.\u00a0 Dinky Dalton was my age.\u00a0 Ruby Jean, she married a Newman.\u00a0 (inaudible)\u00a0 But there was a Linda Cates who has recently passed away within the last few years.\u00a0 She was a Ray in later life.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rachel Marshall.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rachel Marshall, right.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She went to Hill Dem School.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rachel Outz she is now.\u00a0 She went to the Dem School over here as I did.\u00a0 Juliet Kossman, the Kossman\u2019s that have lived here long.\u00a0 Juliet Kossman is my age and we grew up together.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, they built right across the street when I lived in the Maple Street house that I mentioned, the Kossman\u2019t built a house right across the street and we played together many, many times.\u00a0 Many, many days.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What are some of the things that ya\u2019ll would do?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At that time, you had a lot of sandbox type toys.\u00a0 Soldier sets, before the days of G.I. Joe which my father always referred to as a doll.\u00a0 He could not understand how I could let my children play with a doll. But toy soldiers, playing in the sandbox.\u00a0\u00a0 We always had a sandbox out in the front yard that we played in.\u00a0 In the house we had comic books quite often.\u00a0 Children just made up games in those days.\u00a0 Anything from hide and seek, I know many times growing up a quite popular game was called Hide and Seek.\u00a0 Which is nothing more than one person taking off and hiding and everybody else trying to find him.\u00a0 And this of course was at night which made it harder to find them.\u00a0 And that was all through the neighborhood and would branch over to probably a five square block area there on Maple Street.\u00a0 Jimmy Logan who no lives here was a neighbor who lived right in that neighborhood.\u00a0 Nicky Griffith I mentioned earlier, lived right up the street.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lloyd Brown.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes Lloyd Brown who still lives here.\u00a0 The Brown\u2019s lived across the street when I was on Maple Street.\u00a0 They were on Second Avenue in a house there.\u00a0 His sister, Helen, was a little older, Lloyd was a couple of years older than I, and Helen was one year older.\u00a0 And they had two younger sisters, Robert Ann Brown was your age I believe, no excuse me, Audrey was your age.\u00a0 Audrey Brown was my wife\u2019s age, one year younger, and then there was a Robert Ann Brown who was two or three years younger.\u00a0 And I think they are still in the area but I\u2019m not sure just where.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So most of the children you played with were about your same age?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Um hmm.\u00a0 It tended to be pretty close together.\u00a0 It grammar school it ranged a little bit.\u00a0 We had cub scouts in those days and that used to meet at our house.\u00a0 My mother was a den mother.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On Maple Street?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On Maple Street right.\u00a0 Interestingly Mrs. Kossman always told a story about my mother how she convinced her to be a den mother when she didn\u2019t have a child Cub Scout age.\u00a0 Mrs. Kossman was a den mother as well.\u00a0 Chester and Chuck, her children, were both younger than the Cub Scout age at that time.\u00a0 But we had Cub Scout meetings at the house and those games would generally consist of just playing outdoors with a ball, throwing it and being creative.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ve mentioned about twenty names here, so that was a pretty big group that would just roam the neighborhood.\u00a0 So it was very easy for you to go house to house, yard to yard.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, yes, yes.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What sort of rules did you have?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What time to be home and that sort of thing?<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh you had to be home, you had to come home before dark and let them know what was going on, but if you wanted to go outside and play, I don\u2019t remember a specific time of having to be home, but it was just kind of understood that there was a bedtime of around nine or ten o\u2019clock and you were going to be home by then.\u00a0 Everybody was ready to go home by then anyway, they were tired.\u00a0 One thing I remember quite well from those days back in Cleveland, late \u201840\u2019s in Cleveland, virtually every boy at least, and maybe girl\u2019s too now, had their dogs, and dogs just followed them everywhere.\u00a0 And everywhere you went you\u2019d see, well that\u2019s Nicky and his dog, and that\u2019s Noel and his dog or John and his dog.\u00a0 And most boys had a dog and they just ran free.\u00a0 There was never any problem.\u00a0 Very very seldom did you have any problems getting into fights, or biting anybody or anything like that, it just didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How sweet.\u00a0 Were there any neighbors or any yards that you just knew not to go in there.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well Mrs. Glassco lived on the corner and everybody respected Mrs. Glasco.\u00a0 Although she was a wonderful lady and taught everyone a great deal\u2026<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What corner?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She lived on the corner of Second Avenue and Court\u2026<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the south side.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the south side, right.\u00a0 And I was talking with Ed Kossman, another fellow that I grew up with.\u00a0 I told him this morning about Mrs. Glassco.\u00a0 We were commenting on what a wonderful teacher she was for everyone.\u00a0 And my first remembrance of her, I was playing in her yard and she had an old garage in the back that was so separated from her house that at the age of six and seven, I didn\u2019t think the two were connected.\u00a0 The garage which looked abandoned to me didn\u2019t belong to anybody in my mind.\u00a0 So I threw some rocks through a window in this abandoned garage and broke it.\u00a0 And I saw this lady come to the back door and I started to run and she called my name and says, \u201cNoel, stop.\u201d\u00a0 And I said, \u201cUh oh, no use to run because she was just going to call my daddy and I\u2019m in deep trouble.\u201d\u00a0 So I stopped.\u00a0 And it was Mrs. Glassco.\u00a0 And she called me back over there and she explained that it was the wrong thing to do and sent me over to pick up the glass and put it in a neat stack and told me that if I did that and went home she would not tell my parents and I should never do that again.\u00a0 And I always remember that lesson.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now you don\u2019t break windows.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t break windows.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That was a good one.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another thing we did a lot was go to Fireman\u2019s Park.\u00a0 There was \u2013 during the day time during the summer months especially, there was some type of planned activity at Fireman\u2019s Parks.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And who would organize those?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 City.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The city.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Really, so the city\u2026.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You could take your pet and there\u2019d be a pet show going on, or they had some type of little craft things to do or the wading pool was there.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was a building there that is no longer there that was sort of a central meeting place if you will, where you had the crafts that you talked about, and had rest rooms and during the summer it was open and had someone there, college age student probably that was working for the summer, herding the kids and organizing the kids Nellybelle was talking about.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When you were roaming around with your friends, how far could you go?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pretty much as far as you wanted to.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Fireman\u2019s Park was as far as I could go.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, well for guys\u2026<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That way.\u00a0 You\u2019d get into heavy traffic when you got to Court Street.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 There was \u2013 I don\u2019t specifically recall limits, but it wasn\u2019t across Highway 61 out there for example, that was too dangerous.\u00a0 You just wouldn\u2019t have done it, it wasn\u2019t a matter of forbidden.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You weren\u2019t told not to.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You weren\u2019t told not to, you didn\u2019t want to go that far.\u00a0 There was enough to do close to home that you didn\u2019t have to range more than six or eight blocks away.\u00a0 And you tended to have friends that lived within this bicycle range so to speak.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was about to ask.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes, everybody had a bicycle.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And those days you didn\u2019t worry about where you left it.\u00a0 It would always be right where you left it.\u00a0 When you came back to get it, nobody would borrow it.\u00a0 The Ellis Theatre.\u00a0 You could drive by the Ellis Theatre on a Saturday afternoon and there would be thirty or forty bicycles parked out front.\u00a0 Waiting for their owner to come out and ride home.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My parents never locked the house unless for some reason we were going out of town for a week or so.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then they might lock the doors.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, can we go over where you lived?\u00a0 Where did you \u2013 you said you moved here in the second grade?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When we first moved here I lived on east Highway 8, on the east side of town about where the nursing home is out there now.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then we moved on 222 North Third and then we moved to 700 Deering Street. My family bought a house actually from Noel\u2019s father.\u00a0 He was working in the Cleveland Lumber yard at that time.\u00a0 And our house on 700 Deering Street for a long time was the only one out there.\u00a0 There were cotton fields all in front of us.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh really?\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And it only went one block to the west.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When was that?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That would have been late \u201840\u2019s or early \u201850\u2019s.\u00a0 Early \u201850\u2019s. Cause Deering and Farmer and all those streets didn\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Didn\u2019t go through.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Didn\u2019t go through.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t go past Fifth Avenue.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They stopped at Fifth going to the west.\u00a0 And coming in from Fifth only went like Nelle said, for only a few blocks and then they would be riding in somebody\u2019s cotton field.\u00a0 All that area out there when you went south of Fireman\u2019s Park was cotton fields in the late \u201840\u2019s.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So you\u2019ve seen all this develop?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (inaudible).\u00a0 Did you ever expect it would be the size it is now?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Never thought about it.\u00a0 As a child it was something that never entered your mind what Cleveland would be like years from now.\u00a0 But if you had asked me I would probably have been surprised.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was trying to remember, after I \u2013 in later years after I graduation and after I married I went and lived on University and Harvard which was about one block apart, and then I bought over a house at 1210 Farmer Street in the early \u201870\u2019s and I haven\u2019t moved since.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s been good for you hasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay let\u2019s talk about maybe some of the special times around the year downtown.\u00a0 Would there have been festivals for the 4th of July, special decorations for Halloween, and Christmas.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Christmas was decorated downtown, but I don\u2019t remember any other.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Halloween was not a decorated event in our childhood years.\u00a0 In those days Halloween was a trick or treat thing that children went out alone to trick or treat and parents didn\u2019t carry their children around.\u00a0 And you just trick or treated to get some candy or whatever. Nobody decorated their front yard as you see today, and there was no Halloween decoration per say.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Probably no fear of bad stuff in homemade candy.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh no, that all came much much later.\u00a0 I was probably in high school or later before you started hearing about children having to watch what they were given and children being abducted and that sort of thing.\u00a0 It never even came up.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well in the radius that we played in the majority of the mothers were at home during the day.\u00a0 People weren\u2019t working.\u00a0 And all the mothers in the vicinity that these children played in, they looked out after these kids.\u00a0 So if you were eight houses down from where you lived, the mother that\u2019s in that house, she knows you\u2019re in her yard and blah, blah, and playing with all these kids.\u00a0 And if something happened she tells your mother.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good or bad.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good or bad.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And the news was going to reach your mama before you go back.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can bet by the time you got home, punishment was already laid out for you.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well I have one more quick question about Halloween.\u00a0 Was there ever a scary house?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The high school had one.\u00a0 In fact, now that I think about it, the high school did have on Halloween night, and it was designed to give the children something to do to keep them from getting into so much mischief.\u00a0 But they put on a Halloween Carnival it was called.\u00a0 It was a fund raiser really for the senior classes because those were the days when we took senior trips and you had fun houses.\u00a0 They\u2019d take usually one of the old shop buildings and cover the windows up with cardboard and make scary paths to walk around in the dark and that sort of thing.\u00a0 And they also had games where you would toss feed bags or those sorts of things and for little tike prizes.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fishing, Go Fishing, those games.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did they have the scary part where they walked through and saw the eyeballs?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, those sort of things.\u00a0 That would be what whoever did the funhouse it was up to them to come up with creative ideas as to what they would put in there.\u00a0 The grapes in the bowl for eyeballs and whatever.\u00a0 But,\u2026<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where did you go on your senior trip?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ours was the first class at Cleveland High School in 1958 that did not go on a senior trip.\u00a0 We were mad!<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh no!\u00a0 You must not have (inaudible).<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The class of \u201957 \u2013 well they had been saying for years that they were cutting out the senior trips but each class was able to push forth and save enough money and go and we were working on the same thing and we had raised quite a bit of money in fact.\u00a0 The idea that we were going to raise enough money that everyone could go without their parents having to pay, cause that was one of the objections.\u00a0 Some of the children couldn\u2019t afford to go and others could and it was discriminatory.\u00a0 So anyway we were the first ones \u2013 they succeeded in eliminating the senior trips.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So what did you do with the money you raised?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We donated it to the school, they were supposed to do something with it, put a plaque on it, but that money went into the general fund.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Were there any \u2013 ya\u2019ll obviously were the good children, ya\u2019ll never got into trouble when you ran around and played?\u00a0 Were there any of those notorious friends that who no matter what they did, they were going to get into trouble.\u00a0 Or find a way to get into trouble.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 None whose name I would like to put on tape.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well could you tell me about maybe some of the incidents, the activities.\u00a0 Maybe is this the time for the Delta State Post Office story?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh the Post Office story, yeah.\u00a0 I can tell the Post Office story.\u00a0 I won\u2019t necessarily mention other names because some of those people are still \u2013 the former president\u2019s younger brother was involved, so I won\u2019t mention that.\u00a0\u00a0 But Delta State at that time had a number of buildings on the campus which was, if you have ever seen some pictures of the 1940 Army bases, there was these two story wooden buildings that were barracks.\u00a0 After the war these things were pretty much available and Delta State among other schools moved these things in large numbers to be used for everything from classrooms to whatever.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Married apartments.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Married apartments and so forth.\u00a0 And one of these was the Post Office.\u00a0 And we had been to the Ellis Theatre and had seen some kind of movie about Post Office robbery.\u00a0 So we decided we should rob the Post Office.\u00a0 And we succeeded in reaching into a few mail boxes and reached around through the front into the back and pulled some letters out from this and right across the hallway was a cleaning closet.\u00a0 And we were so smart that we went right over there to tear the things open looking for money.\u00a0 Figuring the parents were going to be sending money to their children and we were going to steal it.\u00a0 Anyway we opened a number of pieces of mail and ended up leaving.\u00a0 Well it probably took them all of thirty minutes to figure out what had happened.\u00a0 They actually did call the FBI, and I recall an actual issue of the Delta Statement, I forget which one back in 1947 that mentioned the FBI was investigating postal thievery at Delta State.\u00a0 We were rather severely punished for this. It was considered quite severe at the time,<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Post Office heist.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, the great Post Office heist.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You didn\u2019t get any money.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, there was never any money.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think at that time parents didn\u2019t\u2019 send their children money in those days.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They wired it.\u00a0 Alright, so ya\u2019ll were good children.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pretty much.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What was your favorite place to hang out as you got older?\u00a0 I guess backyards would have been it for awhile.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Growing up, across from the Ellis Theatre there was a drive in called Bob\u2019s Drive Inn, which was quite the hangout in the late \u201840\u2019s.\u00a0 Up the street was Brock\u2019s Caf\u00e9 which is where the Attorney\u2019s office, Griffith\u2019s Attorney is now this was a caf\u00e9.\u00a0 That was kind of a hangout place.\u00a0 Anything close to the Ellis Theatre there was a main source of entertainment in the late \u201840\u2019s.\u00a0 And across from Sharpe Avenue where the vacant space is now, between the Grover\u2019s Hotel and Grover\u2019s Corner was a theatre there during this period called the Regent. And then further down at the other end of the street where the furniture store is today, right next to the corner where Warner Cable is, was a third theatre called Wesco.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wesco.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 W-e-s-c-o.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (inaudible) owned?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Mr. Ellis built them and owned all three at that time.\u00a0 Then later Mr. Ellis sold them to perhaps Davis or whomever.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (inaudible) Davis owned theatres, a couple of theatres.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mr. Ellis may have bought it from them, I really don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I know the Ellis Theatre was named for a Mr. Ellis.\u00a0 One thing that I recall, every year at Christmas he would show cartoons all one Saturday and kids could get in free and he would dress up in a Santa suit and sit in the lobby and hand out popcorn to the children as they came through.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well when was the Booker T. built?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure but it was there the whole time as far as I know.\u00a0 That was during the days of segregation when you had the black, colored as they would have preferred to have been called then, on one side of town and the whites lived on the other.\u00a0 And there was a theatre called the Booker T.\u00a0 Although the other theatres had, it was segregated seating, a black area in the balcony which opened to black families who wanted to come to the movies.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (inaudible) black theatre in one of the others?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It could very well be.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That probably is true, I just don\u2019t know for sure.\u00a0 I just know Mr. Ellis owned theatres and I thought he owned the Regent.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did ya\u2019ll go to the Keen Freeze?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Keen Freeze was a major hangout across from the high school there.\u00a0 That was owned by several different people. I think Mr. Nance was the one that I recall personally most vividly.\u00a0 But there were other families that owned it at various times.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Across from the high school?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Across from the high school, yes, there is a little strip mall that has been put in there now.\u00a0 Some lawyer\u2019s offices and\u2026<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh is that where Lynn Pace is now?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, yes, that was a drive through.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They had a famous hamburger.\u00a0 Keen Freeze hamburger.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, hamburgers, the drive.\u00a0 They first opened as a pure drive-up.\u00a0 You drove up to the window and went to the window and carried it off yourself.\u00a0 And then later they added on to it and built a little dining room where you could actually go in and sit down and order hamburgers and stuff.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How old were you when you got your first drivers\u2019 license?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fifteen.\u00a0 That was the age at that time.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember if I was fifteen or sixteen.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, you got your drivers\u2019 license so could you drive?\u00a0 Or what did you drive?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, I took Drivers\u2019 Education.\u00a0 Coach Meadors at the high school taught me.\u00a0 I learned to change a tire, change the oil in the car.\u00a0 Knew where the spark plugs were.\u00a0 We learned inside the hood and learned how to do maintenance on the car I think.\u00a0 Of course now days it is so computerized it wouldn\u2019t do.\u00a0 We learned all that in Drivers\u2019 Education.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When you started driving did your home start to change?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 My folks were funny about driving.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t mind me taking the car to do something, but they didn\u2019t allow me to just take the car and ride around.\u00a0 That was forbidden. That was a no-no.\u00a0 You ran errands or delivered things here and there and yonder and whatever.\u00a0 I do recall interesting, they talk about how times change.\u00a0 The drivers\u2019 test was given by the State Highway Patrol, at now what is now the city hall, and I guess it is still the city hall now, but made somewhat different back in those times.\u00a0 The water tower was down there.\u00a0 And I recall one time going down with my father on I believe my fifteenth birthday and the driving test consisted of the Highway Patrol turning to my father and saying, \u201cHe can drive can\u2019t he?\u201d\u00a0 And my father said, \u201cYes\u201d and that was the driving test that I was required to take.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you think he \u2013 they were afraid to get in the car with you?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That might have been it.\u00a0 Might have been it.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What did ya\u2019ll do in high school to entertain yourself?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Movies.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Movies?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sock hops on Friday night after the home football game.\u00a0 In the old girls gym.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What are some special times, special memories for you there?\u00a0 Just going?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just going and dancing with everybody and dancing of course.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Football games were big social events Friday nights.\u00a0 Home games anyway.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t travel around that much, or follow the high school football team like folks do nowadays I think.\u00a0 We just didn\u2019t drive around quite as much as people do now.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What extra curricular activities did ya\u2019ll do in high school?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I worked after school just for spending money pretty much the whole time and was really not that active. I went out for baseball one year and football one year. And after one year of each decided that\u2026<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where did you work?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cleveland Lumber Company.\u00a0 My father was the manager of the lumber company and I walked right there from school. It was walking distance.\u00a0 I worked there after school and on Saturday\u2019s they worked until noon.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where was it then?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was where \u2013 Brown Scrap Iron has bought the place now, but that was before Cleveland Lumber moved out to the highway.\u00a0 That\u2019s when it was located there.\u00a0 And briefly later in high school I worked at Mistlelow Gardens.\u00a0 They had an old purple panel truck and I would deliver flowers.\u00a0 At that particular time as I recall there were a lot more people would order flowers delivered to residences or the hospital here or there than you see today.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But you\u2019re sitting by your high school sweetheart.\u00a0 Did you ever deliver any flowers?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I always took a corsage before a major dance and I brought that with me when I came.\u00a0 That was sort of a ritualistic thing.\u00a0 I think it was kind of mandatory if you were going to take your girl you had to have a corsage.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He certainly would not come to pick me up to take me to a Red Top Dance without bringing me a corsage.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Red Top Dance?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Red Tops were great.\u00a0 They were a band that played.\u00a0 They were all black.\u00a0 They were originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi but they played the delta and I think they went over into Louisiana and Alabama some, but they played for a lot of dances and social events in the delta.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rosedale Courthouse was a major scene of that what was the courtroom, well it is still the courtroom.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just moved the chairs back.\u00a0 Elsewhere in Cleveland for example, the gym would be used.\u00a0 The high school gym.\u00a0 Later years after the Country Club opened occasionally there would be dances at the Country Club.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Were there any issues that the Red Sox were a black group?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, but under the social mores at the time, they very much stayed to themselves.\u00a0 In fact, the fellow who ran them was adamant that he did not want his band members to talk to any of these white people.\u00a0 Cause he knew there was some element out there, especially with young girls who were going to get very upset if they started flirting for want of another word, with young white girls.\u00a0 So they were very well behaved in the sense of segregating themselves from.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t hardly engage one in conversation between plays.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What did you do, what extra-curricular activities did you do in high school?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the fall it was Pep Squad.\u00a0 At Cleveland High School there was the band and then there were two groups of girls that formed what they called Pep Squad.\u00a0 And they did about twenty to a group, so it would be about forty of the girls, high school girls involved.\u00a0 And they would split up into two groups and I marched in that.\u00a0 We performed with the band at halftime ballgames. And then I played basketball.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And tell us about you and Noel dating?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, we would go to the Ellis most of the time because it was a little nicer theatre than the Wesco or the Regent.\u00a0 And at times, sometimes we would be dropped off.\u00a0 In other words his parents would drop him off and I would be dropped off.\u00a0 And other times his mom would pick me up and take us.\u00a0 And then it got to the point where they would let us go in the car.\u00a0 But ya\u2019ll must remember, there was only one car to a family and you didn\u2019t have access to the car like the young people do now.\u00a0 You only got to go in the car when your parents were not using it, and the majority of the time, the father was using the car in the daytime to go to work and occasionally you could use it at night.\u00a0 My father had a rule you could not go out on a school night unless it was connected to the schoolhouse.\u00a0 A ballgame, or choir practice or something of that.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t go out to the movies or anywhere like that during a week night.\u00a0 It was just on the weekends.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was there any day of the week that everybody went to the movies like Saturday afternoon or Wednesday night or something that everybody was at the movies?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well when we were younger, Saturday afternoon you would go stand in line when they opened up the ticket window and you got a ticket, you didn\u2019t come out, you just kept sitting through the movie until your parents came back and picked you up at 8:30 or 9:00.\u00a0 You could continue to watch the same movie over and over, the news reel and the short story that they would do.\u00a0 The little serial they would do.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Um hmm.\u00a0 They would have serials.\u00a0 Sure did.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What about spending the night with each other, not ya\u2019ll two, but like your friends.\u00a0 Did you ever go over and just stay the night?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh in high school we had what we called \u201cSupper Club.\u201d\u00a0 And we would meet at one of the parents house each Friday night, a group of about ten to fifteen girls and the parents would prepare hamburgers or hotdogs or some type of light meal.\u00a0 We would eat and most of the times it would be a football game that we would go to that.\u00a0 Then come back to that parents house and have we called a slumber party.\u00a0 We\u2019d spend the night and sleeping on the floor or in chairs or bathtub.\u00a0 Wherever you could find a place to lay down.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Who were some of the people that you were friends with.\u00a0 We talked about Noel.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Oh gee. \u00a0Well he and I had some of the same friends.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Joyce Logan.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, Joyce Logan.\u00a0 Rachel Marshall she was, she\u2019s Rachel Outz now.\u00a0 Corrinne Wiggins, Kay Beevers, Shirley Salmon.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 These were kind of the girls that you ran with?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, uh huh, I think once they consolidated schools our junior year, Anita Reed Griffith came from O\u2019Reilly.\u00a0 But that was, we were juniors that year when they Boyle School closed and came to Cleveland.\u00a0 There were some girls from Merigold that came in at that time.\u00a0 Mary Beth Howell, gee whiz, I\u2019m trying to think.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well was there anybody\u2019s house that if you went over there you knew you would have a good time. Like their parents would let you have fun.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, I know another one.\u00a0 Barbara Boswell she was.\u00a0 She\u2019s married to G.R. Harden now.\u00a0 Oh her mother could make the best homemade biscuits.\u00a0 I mean, yes.\u00a0 We always had a good time.\u00a0 They lived out on McKnight Road out in the country.\u00a0 We\u2019d go out there and eat and play and ride horses, swim in the rice ditch.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, that sounds safe.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 It was.\u00a0 We thought.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No snakes there.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Uh uh.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Uh hmm.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, so we are kind of in the country, were there people who had maybe chickens or anything in their back yards?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember the back yard as much.\u00a0 I do recall earlier years when the Modern Store on Main Street sold live chickens.\u00a0 When you bought chicken, if you were going to cook a chicken at home, they had inside the store a little bin, live chickens that they would take out, turn upside down and tie their feet together, which somehow calmed them I guess.\u00a0 And then you carried this live chicken home which they would then take out into the back yard and wring its neck.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, that sounds like fun.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then boil it and get the feathers off and\u2026<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you ever have that chicken?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah.\u00a0 That\u2019s the only way we got chicken. If you were going to have chicken, that was in the days before frozen foods in the \u201840\u2019s.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah, at my grandmother\u2019s we\u2019d go out early in the morning and she caught a chicken and wrung its neck and dipped it in the water.\u00a0 We plucked that sucker and fried it and cooked it and had it for lunch.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Boy.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was no going to the grocery store and picking up one already cut up in little pieces, boneless.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not so quite pretty and neat as we have now.\u00a0 I have a couple of questions about James Albert Wiggins.\u00a0 Do you have any further questions yet?<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not that I know.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My first question after reading James Albert Wiggins stuff, did that stir any specific memories or\u2026?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I made some marks on my copy. Yes, I thought it was very good and very interesting. He did mention, and when he was talking about the names of Cleveland, I was under the impression that Cleveland was first named Coleman Station, but he didn\u2019t make any mention of that in his write-up.\u00a0 So I\u2019m a little curious about that.\u00a0 And he mentioned Rosedale being the first county seat, and I was thinking Prentiss was the first county seat.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They were back and back, back and forth.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, that\u2019s what I was thinking about.\u00a0 He was talking about the mule barns and in fact I recently was talking to John Brown who has Brown Scrap Iron down there and the barn is still there, and he was telling me just recently that the stalls are still inside that building.\u00a0 They have never been taken out.\u00a0 Apparently he\u2019s never remodeled the inside of that thing or done anything with it.\u00a0 Where Brown has his scrap iron service, there is a big metal barn there.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That used to be a mule barn.<\/p>\n

NF: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, they sold \u2013 had mule auctions once a week \u2013 had live mules there that they sold and so forth.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what he was saying, the barns are still in \u2013 excuse me the stalls are still in there.\u00a0 And I was asking him and he said the last actual sale of mules took place in the very early \u201850\u2019s.\u00a0 Probably the last time any mules were dealt with.\u00a0 I do recall my grandfather on Maple Street next door to where we lived always planted a very large garden.\u00a0 He had a big plot next to his house.\u00a0 And he would hire a man that used to walk over from east side with a mule, walked over there with a mule and a plow and break that field up for his garden to save him having to hoe and do it himself and that sort of thing.\u00a0 In the late \u201840\u2019s is the last time I recall a live mule being used in a field.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Would he do that for anybody else?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes, he would have done it for anybody at the time.\u00a0 Sort of call him up and rent his mule.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because everybody would have had a vegetable garden.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of people would, yes. A lot of people would.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did everybody have phones?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, phones had been around even in the days when Cleveland had operators.\u00a0 When you picked up the phone and tell them who you wanted to call.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember not having a telephone.\u00a0 Even in the early \u201840\u2019s we had a telephone.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tell her what your number was.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 162W.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember where the car keys are but I remember my telephone from 1940.\u00a0 If you had a letter on the end of it, that meant you were on a party line.\u00a0 Which meant of course that someone shared that line and if you picked up the line and someone was talking, you were politely supposed to hang up.\u00a0 Of course being a child, children are often want to listen in.\u00a0 But at any rate, there was a certain numbered ring that we\u2019d have when it was supposed to be for you and your phone. And then a different ring for the other party.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you ever hear anything interesting?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, I\u2019m afraid not. Well, how about you?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember our first telephone number.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was it a party line?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, it was.\u00a0 And we were lectured repeatedly about not picking up the phone and if someone else was talking to hang up immediately, very softly, you don\u2019t slam the receiver down.\u00a0 And then you wait more than four minutes before you pick it up again.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, you would have one phone in your house, in fact I \u2013 the house on Maple Street was a two-story house, and my father designed it so that the telephone \u2013 the houses at that time were built with a little alcove in the wall that held the telephone.\u00a0 That\u2019s where your telephone sat.\u00a0 And on the stair landing going to the second floor is where he put this phone thing, so that whether you were upstairs or downstairs you could get mid way to this telephone more or less in the center of the house.\u00a0 There was only one phone.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Only one telephone in your house.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And one bathroom.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One bathroom.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Typically yes, one bathroom.\u00a0 That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And one plug-in in the bathroom.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It didn\u2019t accommodate all these blow dryers and curling irons.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was no such thing as a hand held hair dryer.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What about air conditioners?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The first air conditioner that I remember were the early \u201850\u2019s.\u00a0 That I can recall \u2013 home air conditioners. Buildings became air conditioned in the \u201840\u2019s I think, businesses, and there always a big sign out front telling you that they were air conditioned.\u00a0 But homes, probably the early \u201850\u2019s, when they started to get window air conditioners.\u00a0 I think I recall the Carpenter\u2019s who lived over on Leflore that had the first central air conditioning that I remember.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh wow.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the time which would have been early \u201950\u2019s.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So you would have had to have the big window, the attic fans?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Every home was built with an attic fan and you just opened the windows and I don\u2019t remember it being especially hot.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well it was.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The mosquitoes were not as bad as they are now.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We were talking about that the other day.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 And we were talking about he mosquitoes, we were talking the other night, we don\u2019t think it was.\u00a0 The rice farmers say it\u2019s not the rice fields, but for some reason there seems to be a lot of mosquitoes now.\u00a0 Now one thing they had in those days was DDT.\u00a0 But the trucks came around with those foggers.\u00a0 And if DDT was going to hurt you, all the kids in Cleveland that grew up in the \u201840\u2019s would be dead because following around in the fog behind the DDT truck.\u00a0 And this was thick fog, not like you have today.\u00a0 And just riding in it for fun.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And he\u2019s said riding, he\u2019s speaking of riding a bicycle.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bicycle.\u00a0 Yes, yes.\u00a0 But at any rate, the DDT was perhaps more effective, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 No, the mosquitoes were here, they were bad, they would run you indoors sometimes, but nothing like today.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you spend a lot of time outside on porches or in the yard with neighbors?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Um hmm.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Porches of course were screened.\u00a0 So mosquitoes weren\u2019t a problem there.\u00a0 And playing outside was typically right at dark would tend to get heavy mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But not as bad as today because we used to \u2013 Rachel and myself and Shirley used to camp out in our back yard.\u00a0 And Mother would just take the quilts and throw them over the clothesline to make a tent for us to sleep out \u2013 camp out as we called it. I know the mosquitoes weren\u2019t as bad then as they are now.\u00a0 It\u2019s just no way that we could have slept outside in the grass.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And Deering would have been very close to city limits.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 We were.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By the fields.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We were.\u00a0 But the stuff they sprayed that cotton with might have been \u2026.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DDT.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, there might have been some DDT in that killed the mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah.\u00a0 Were all the houses, typically when your dad built his house did he build it with a porch?\u00a0 Had to have a porch cause that was like an outside room?<\/p>\n

Did both of you have porches?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The house on Maple Street did have a large porch, but no, not all of them, your house on Deering did not.\u00a0 When they built the house on College Street it did not have a porch, screened porch in the sense that we are talking about.\u00a0 But they were common then, the screen porches.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good place.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve heard of sleeping porches.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My grandma had a sleeping porch.\u00a0 But we didn\u2019t have patios the way you think of a patio today.\u00a0 But there was a certain spot in the yard where the lawn chairs were set up and some little, old, I call them coca-cola cases, or some type of wooden box thing to use for tables, where my parents would sit out there.\u00a0 On Sunday afternoons most of the time my father made homemade ice cream.\u00a0 And we were sitting in the grass, the chairs and all that.\u00a0 It was not a concrete slab or a wooden deck or anything.\u00a0 And we\u2019d stay out there until after dark.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just hanging out with your family?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, yes.\u00a0 I can remember sitting out there and you could see the Sputnik when it went over.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh really?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You talking about homemade ice cream, I recall too that a landmark in Cleveland was the old ice house that sat in really what is now the parking lot to the Warehouse Restaurant.\u00a0 But in that open area right there sat what was called the Ice House.\u00a0 Denton\u2019s owned it and ran it.\u00a0 And you could buy blocks of ice.\u00a0 I think a small block was a nickel. \u00a0That was enough to do a thing of homemade ice cream.\u00a0 A nickel block of ice was probably six inches square by a foot and a half long.\u00a0 And it went all the way up to probably a hundred pounds twice for people that had commercial uses for these sorts of things. And during the watermelon season they would take cold watermelon kept inside the icehouse that you could go down and pick yourself out a watermelon and they would plug it for you so you could take a look at the inside so you could make sure it was a good watermelon before you took it home.\u00a0 And people ate quite a lot more watermelon I think\u00a0 than people do these days, at least here in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well if they kept it on ice like that I think I\u2019d eat it more.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, you\u2019re right. I think that was the big attraction.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s already cold, so much faster than your Frigidaire right now.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s right.\u00a0 That\u2019s true.\u00a0 Okay, the railroad.\u00a0 Are there any memories for ya\u2019ll about the railroad being in town?\u00a0 Was it used a major form of transportation for ya\u2019ll or family?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can remember riding on it, and we took trips to Memphis occasionally, but it was not a common.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I remember taking a trip on it.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you ever put pennies on the track?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes.\u00a0 Every year the Boy Scouts used to camp downtown on what is now the Green Strip.\u00a0 And once a year, that was in the days of parking meters, once a year they would let the boys give out tickets.\u00a0 And they\u2019d give you a ticket book working with the City Police, you\u2019d walk around and wait for somebody\u2019s parking meter to expire and write them a ticket.\u00a0 Of course I don\u2019t think they ever tried to follow up on those.\u00a0 People came in and paid the fine and that was fine, if they didn\u2019t they didn\u2019t worry about it.\u00a0 We would spend the night down there and the trains at that time would come through at least two trains a night. By that I\u2019m talking 10:00 and 2:00 in the morning and that sort of thing.\u00a0 And yes, we would always have to have a penny or something on the track to watch it get smashed flat.\u00a0 Occasionally we would take some lard and put on the track to make the wheels spin, but that, it really didn\u2019t cause the train any problems.\u00a0 We would just watch the wheels spin and that thrilled us young kids.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you ever as young kids at night drive down and see the train?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trains weren\u2019t that uncommon.\u00a0 In fact, I recall the last trains came through Cleveland when we had the store downtown.\u00a0 Once a week a flat car would back in from down at Leland and get a load of scrap iron from Brown\u2019s and leave.\u00a0 You could almost count on it.\u00a0 I forget what day it was.\u00a0 But that ended somewhere there in the mid \u201890\u2019s was the last time that they came.\u00a0 And after that is when they abandoned the line so to speak.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can remember when I was in high school.\u00a0 Occasionally Coach Wade would send me to the grocery store.\u00a0 There was a certain type coffee that she kept made in her office in the girl\u2019s gym.\u00a0 And it was a certain brand that had a star on it.\u00a0 And she saved these stars and you got so much built up till you got some type of prize. She had sent me to the grocery store which was on the east side of the railroad track during my gym class, \u201cLynnelle go over there and get me a five pound can and bring it back.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYes ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How did you get there?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In her car.\u00a0 This was high school.\u00a0 Then I got the coffee, got back in the car, and the train was on the tracks and I could not get across the tracks to get back to the high school.\u00a0 And I was late getting back and Mrs. Glassco was my next class, my English class, and I was late.\u00a0 And I can remember Coach Wade had to write me an excuse so she would let me in class because she did not believe that I had gone in Coach Wade\u2019s car to the grocery store.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did that happen more than once?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, that\u2019s all.\u00a0 That incident only happened to me one time.\u00a0 Then another time though, Betty Barrett which played basketball, she and Gloria Sullivan, they lived on the east side of town.\u00a0 And the basketball team was leaving to go somewhere to play a game.\u00a0 And we were supposed to be at the girls\u2019 gym at such and such time and Coach Wade was very punctual.\u00a0 That was her \u2013 she was a lady, but everybody should be on time.\u00a0 There was no excuse for being late.\u00a0 But at any rate, they were late arriving.\u00a0 And that was what happened to them, they got caught on the east side of the track and a freight train was coming through, and of course there was no way to get through and they were about ten or fifteen minutes late.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now you had one or two trains a day that simply shut off the east from west Cleveland when the train came through.\u00a0 Cause the freight train would take, I\u2019m going to guess ten minutes to pass.\u00a0 So for ten minutes you could not cross.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (inaudible) people living on the east side was not as divided as it is today.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think it was as divided\u2026<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of people farmed on the east side.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, but they were, you\u2019ve got to remember the whole town had grown. So you\u2019ve got an east side of Cleveland that\u2019s predominantly black today that goes \u2013 was cotton field just like the west side of Cleveland was cotton fields then.\u00a0 But that side of the railroad track was the black part of town which if I recall, the blacks at that time were colored as they preferred to be called, referred to as the quarters.\u00a0 That was the term that they would use to refer to that part of town.\u00a0 But there were white families on that side of town.\u00a0 The railroad track was not a firm dividing point per say.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was a lot of people living on the east side that did farm, their families farmed family land.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was that between the railroad and where 61 is now, did they live in that space, or would they have lived even further on the outside of 61.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the other side of 61.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some on the other side.\u00a0 I mean Andrews was where I grew up is right behind Kossman\u2019s.\u00a0 That was all a white section of town at that time.\u00a0 White and black sections of town were quite close to each other.\u00a0 It\u2019s just starting at this street black families lived and starting at this street white families would live. And they were just separated themselves.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just feels like it kind of maybe shifted a little bit to where it feels like the railroad today is a barrier between us.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think it is.\u00a0 I think it is because areas there, as I said, the Andrews section of town is completely black today.\u00a0 Friends of mine that lived along the east side of Sharpe Avenue there, Linda Cates that I mentioned growing up lived along there, and that\u2019s all black section of town today.\u00a0 Demographics change.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In one of the History\u2019s of Bolivar County, or maybe it was Reflections, and it talks about Saturday night downtown would be just a huge social arena.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah.\u00a0 Saturday afternoon late. Yeah.\u00a0 (inaudible) Saturday.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was that not more of your mom and dad day or would that have been the teenagers?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well I can remember, it was my mom and dad because dad had the car all week.\u00a0 So he and mother and they drug us along cause we couldn\u2019t stay home by ourselves I guess, I don\u2019t know, but anyway we\u2019d go out and mother would do her dry goods shopping.\u00a0 If she needed some thread or material, or we needed a pair of jeans or whatever.\u00a0 And then the last thing \u2013 all that type shopping would get done and if any medicine had to be bought at the drugstore \u2013 and then the last thing she would do would be go to the grocery store.\u00a0 Which all of these were on Sharpe Avenue.\u00a0 She\u2019d do the grocery shopping and then we would go home.\u00a0 But usually my brother and I had to sit in the car with my father.\u00a0 He took a book and he sat in the car and read and we would what we referred to as \u201cpeople watched.\u201d\u00a0 All the different people that were downtown walking down the sidewalk.\u00a0 That was our entertainment.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Saturday was a big shopping day.\u00a0 Downtown Cleveland was just jammed.\u00a0 That was like later years the parking meters came in because they had to move cars through so people could get in to shop.\u00a0 Most of the stores along Sharpe had these wind out canvas awnings that late afternoon they would lower to keep the afternoon sun from coming in through the windows while people shopped.\u00a0 I don\u2019t recall how late \u2013 I assume they stayed open late.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some of them stayed really late.\u00a0 At least till 10:00.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We weren\u2019t down there but shopping Saturday was a major, major day.\u00a0 Much more so than today because people worked.\u00a0 And like Nell said, the women who stayed home didn\u2019t have cars, their husband had the car if they were working, So on Saturday when everybody was there and they had the car and daddy was home, they\u2019d go shopping.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was there any kind of public transportation?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For a very brief time in the \u201850\u2019s some fellow out of Greenville tried to run a city bus.\u00a0 And it ran for part of one summer but I think it was something that people weren\u2019t used to and it never drew the kind of ridership.\u00a0 People had not \u2013 you have to plan your life around public transportation if it\u2019s going to be effective and Cleveland had never had it and people had already made whatever arrangements they made.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 More relaxed lifestyle.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Were there taxis?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes, yes.\u00a0 There were taxis.\u00a0 Twenty-five cents and you could go anywhere in Cleveland.\u00a0 The taxi stand, one that I remember so much was right there where the old Gulf station is closed, down next to the Ellis where they are doing the arts thing.\u00a0 Right behind it was a very small, I\u2019d say 6\u2019 by 6\u2019 building was the dispatcher if you will.\u00a0 City Taxis I believe it was.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 City Taxis.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was more than one taxi company.\u00a0 There was no meters.\u00a0 There was flat rate.\u00a0 Twenty-five cents they\u2019d pick you up and take you anywhere in Cleveland within the city limits, and dropped you off for a quarter.\u00a0 And also those were in the dry days in Mississippi.\u00a0 It was dry.\u00a0 And for twenty-five cents plus the price of a bottle of whiskey, you could call the taxi company and they would go over to the Do Drop Inn or one of the other places along Highway 61 out there and pick you up and whatever kind of whiskey you wanted and bring it to you for twenty-five cents plus whatever the whiskey cost.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh my!<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adults only, they wouldn\u2019t do that for children.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean that.\u00a0 But my parents.\u00a0 I can remember my mother ordering her a new bottle of Old Crow from time to time.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well she would have never gone to the liquor store anyway.\u00a0 Women did not go into any type of liquor store.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There would not have been beer battered French fries and beer batter pickles or anything like that?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Probably not.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Probably not, but women just did not go to places like the liquor store.\u00a0 That would be really tabu.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And obviously probably everybody knew everybody they would know quickly.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah, before you got back home.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Were you involved in church activities?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In high school yeah, my parents were active, they just kind of drug me along I guess.\u00a0 Like most kids, whatever their parents were doing, the kids are doing too.\u00a0 My parents were in the Baptist Church growing up and I think at that time you were too.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You were in the choir.\u00a0 I have a picture of you in my choir robe would you believe it?\u00a0 It was just a way of getting Nellybelle out of the house on Wednesday night.\u00a0 Her daddy would allow that to go to choir practice.\u00a0 And sometimes there was a little while after choir practice was over before she got home.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh Noel!\u00a0 Can you sing?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But not too long.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was that part of your social activities \u2013 the Church?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Everybody would go to Sunday School about 9:00, not it was about 10:00 I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 11:00 the preacher would start in.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was it First Baptist that ya\u2019ll went to?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, we sat in the balcony.\u00a0 Most of the young people sat up in the balcony then.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well can I move on to Nancy Seawright.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You talked about naming Jones Bayou?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One of the histories of Cleveland mentioned that Jones Bayou was named \u00a0for a child that drowned in the bayou.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that, but her write-up or James\u2019s write-up one mentioned that it was named for a laborer.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know but an early history does mention the bayou.\u00a0 She did recall, she was talking about in her write-up she talked about as if there was a Splendid Caf\u00e9 down near the north end of Sharpe Avenue. The Splendid Caf\u00e9 was actually part of the pool room.\u00a0 There in that vacant area between the bank and the flower store today. There was a caf\u00e9 down that way called the Post Office Caf\u00e9 somewhere on Sharpe Avenue north is the way I recall it once again.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And again we were not super sure of what her dates are that she is referencing.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No I\u2019m not.\u00a0 But she said down here on North Sharpe Avenue.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – after that Jones Bayou naming thing.\u00a0 Did any of the people she pointed out, did they spark memories of..?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No not so much the people.\u00a0 I did recall \u2013 I did want to mention that she talked about Denton\u2019s Headquarters there and that Denton had a swimming pool. But in the late \u201840\u2019s, mid \u201840\u2019s I should say there was a very large \u2013 larger than the Delta State swimming pool that was open at that time.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The new one?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, the old one.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, the old swimming pool, excuse me.\u00a0 The old Delta State swimming pool.\u00a0 It\u2019s still here.\u00a0 It was a larger swimming pool than that.\u00a0 It had a big sliding board on it I recall.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How did you get to swim there?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My father would let me.\u00a0 Back when I was four or five years old I didn\u2019t do that much swimming myself.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Was it kind of a club kind of thing?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No you paid whatever it cost to get into it, which I imagine was not over a nickel or a dime.\u00a0 But it is right where the Denton\u2019s warehouse is today.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember exactly when it was filled in and the warehouse built but it was sometimes in the late \u201840\u2019s, mid \u201840\u2019s.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When we were in grade school you could come out to Delta State on Saturday, pay a dime and swim all day long in the old pool.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did both of you went to the school here on campus?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No he did.\u00a0 I went to Pearman, which is sitting where Margaret Green Jr. High School sits today.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Dem School sat where the library sits today, which if I understand from the old histories, was the old agricultural high school originally, but turned it in to Delta State College and later turned it into a Demonstration School, first through sixth grade where student teachers could use as a laboratory.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We have some great pictures of them and we have just gotten a new scrapbook from John Thornell.\u00a0 He just discovered two new ones.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I want to see that sometime.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I bet you might recognize some folks.\u00a0 Were there any houses that you \u2013 I know today at my age I sometimes drive down these historic streets and I think, \u201cOh, that\u2019s a beautiful house, I wish I knew more about it.\u201d\u00a0 Any houses downtown that you just wish you could have, or know special things about?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where the law offices were that Jacks bought as a private residence again, the Denton\u2019s were living there when I grew up.\u00a0 Before that I think it was the Pearman\u2019s.\u00a0 The Pearman house.\u00a0 That was an old, old house that I think was quite interesting and I was in there a lot with the Denton\u2019s because I grew up with Joe Denton. And I recall that it had a basement in it which was unusual.\u00a0 A coal fired furnace at the time.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was an upscale house.\u00a0 Very upscale.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It had a speaking tube that went from the kitchen to an upstairs hallway that was designed for someone in the kitchen or upstairs to call down to the kitchen for something that they wanted.\u00a0 And this for kids that was something else.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just magic.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s the word.\u00a0 But that house stands out as being quite unusual and noteworthy.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And the heating system, that was unusual.\u00a0 Most people just had space heaters or a fireplace.\u00a0 Real wood burning fireplaces and the Denton house had a furnace and going to the different rooms.\u00a0 It was not exactly central heating but like I said, it was an upscale house from what most folks had in our area of the Delta.\u00a0 The Gooch House.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where was it at?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dr. Adams lives there now, I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The big house there on the corner of, what is it,\u00a0 South Pearman.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a great big brick house with a yard?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, with a yard beside it.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s not on Leflore.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What is that street that cuts across there?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pearman.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pearman okay.\u00a0 Right down the street from where the Jacks Offices were.\u00a0 It is the same, Bolivar is an older section of town as I recall it, originally settled by the families. Cause there\u2019s a ridge along there too as I understand it.\u00a0 The highest point in Cleveland is right along that line so naturally people tended or settlers tended to build along that overflow area of the bayou.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did ya\u2019ll ever see any flooding?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The streets would flood, the drainage was not that good.\u00a0 Much as some parts of Cleveland still do today.\u00a0 But over there on Maple Street was a bad flooding area.\u00a0 I have some photographs at home of people actually in fishing boats out there and two or three feet deep.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t get in the houses or anything like that.\u00a0 But at that time houses were pretty much built not on the slab as they are today, but off the ground, have crawl space underneath and that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did Fireman\u2019s Park flood?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, it was high enough it didn\u2019t actually \u2013 the streets were where you would get the flooding.\u00a0 Fireman\u2019s Park was built probably in the early \u201850\u2019s.\u00a0 And I do recall, one of the things I do recall is that the north end of Fireman\u2019s Park is a part, if you would like at early maps you will see that it is listed separately as Strange\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where the tennis courts are now.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where the tennis courts are today. Mr. Strange donated that land and interestingly, to me anyway, he donated it with the stipulation that nothing would ever be built on it.\u00a0 Because as a boy growing up he had lived in a city and the thing that he did not like was that you could never find a big open field to play, so that was given to the City of Cleveland with that stipulation and since then I\u2019ve noticed that they built tennis courts and any number of other things so you gotta be careful how you bequeath things.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well there is kind of a looks like it kind of starts a street that might have crossed.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It did.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When it first built the park it actually was a street.\u00a0 You could drive across it.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That would have been the two different parks.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 It was noticeably different when it was originally put in. Although it was done at the same time.\u00a0 But then later they closed that off so it\u2019s not a street.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And it is Fireman\u2019s Park, because of the Volunteer Fire Department.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, the south end of that is and I still assume is Fireman\u2019s Park.\u00a0 Because the Fire Department is the one that donated \u2013 I think someone donated the land but the firemen put in the equipment and so forth.\u00a0 In fact if you go out there now it\u2019s a large marble marker that is there, it has the names of all the whole families that were active in the Fire Department at that time.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Volunteer Fire Department.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Volunteer Fire Department,\u00a0 yes. As it still is today.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Absolutely, what a great group of Volunteer Fire Department.\u00a0 Are there any other reminiscences of families or individuals that stand out in your mind growing up with a larger than life kind of figures or people that you played with, that gosh you never thought that they would grow up to be so successful.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kay Beevers has just retired from the Office of Supreme Court.\u00a0 She\u2019s a judge.\u00a0 And she was always real smart in school and very likeable but I \u2013 her mother and father farmed on North Bayou.\u00a0 The Beevers had land out there and farmed and she certainly was capable of doing all that she has done, but I have been very impressed with her conquest that she has done with her life.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well not to move to a more morbid subject but the cemeteries.\u00a0 I knew I wanted to ask about the cemeteries.\u00a0 The difference between today New Cemetery, North Cemetery and the old cemetery.\u00a0 Can you tell me where those are and what the difference is?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The old cemetery was the only cemetery when I was a young child.\u00a0 What is now referred to as the New Cemetery.\u00a0 The New Cleveland Cemetery was built probably in the \u201840\u2019s, late \u201840\u2019s maybe, but the original cemetery is the original \u2013 it\u2019s still there of course.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s the one by the theatre on North Bayou Road.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The newer cemetery is the next one down and interestingly enough though, after we moved here I was checking, the old Cleveland Cemetery still has plots available.\u00a0 It is not full.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is that where ya\u2019ll are being buried?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes we are, right at the feet of Mrs. Glassco.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What is the cemetery that\u2019s by the old Coke plant?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is I believe a black cemetery and has been there, and I don\u2019t know anything about it.\u00a0 In recent years some groups have \u2013 I think the 100 Black Men in Bolivar County, I believe they have taken it on as a project and it is in good shape now.\u00a0 Even when I was a child growing up it was abandoned.\u00a0 It was not an active cleaned up cemetery.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you go further out North Bayou, it is another cemetery out there called the Beevers Cemetery.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is that maybe the new North Cemetery, would that be it?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, this is a family cemetery.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kay Beevers?<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some of her relatives.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think the far North Cemetery was originally going to be a Jewish Cemetery.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, it was.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And none of the Jewish families would be buried there, they wanted to be buried in Greenville at the large Jewish Cemetery there.\u00a0 And I think it was just a failed project.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember who started it, but when it was first put in, that was going to be a Jewish Cemetery and Jewish families just did not want to avail themselves of it.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But we still have Jewish families in town (inaudible)?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes, yes, yes.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is the Jewish Synagogue still active?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes, very much.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of Chinese, the Chinese Baptist Church, and all was very active.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And the old Chinese School I can recall when we were in the Dem School in probably the Fifth Grade having a tour there if you want to call it that.\u00a0 They took a load of us children and went over to the Chinese High School.\u00a0 Excuse me, the Chinese Grammar School and sat in and kids did some of the they do on the board, just various things to expose us to the Chinese culture there.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember what year the Chinese School was closed and came in with the regular school, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think it might have been around desegregation.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was before that.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was before that.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I was in high school, when I was in high school, all the Chinese students were in high school.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah the Chinese and the Jewish and a few Hispanics, not very many Hispanics.\u00a0 But that was in the \u201850\u2019s when we were in high school.\u00a0 We were all going to the same school.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But by that time the Jewish families for the most people that I knew, the Jewish Church or Synagogue was simply another church to the white angle Saxons, or whatever you want to call us \u2013Christian.\u00a0 People in town were simply not thought of as particularly a different religion.\u00a0 And I would think of the Presbyterian or the Methodist or something, they went to a different building.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well when we were going to the First Baptist Church when we were in high school and there were a few Chinese members of the First Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, there were a lot of Chinese that were Baptists.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Baptists made an effort to make sure the Chinese had a ministry.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And they may have been in other Church\u2019s. I was not attending the other Church\u2019s.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What are your thoughts of Cleveland now?\u00a0 Are you happy that you came back here or that you stayed?\u00a0 What do you think the atmosphere of Cleveland is today?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 I\u2019ve lived all over the country and you couldn\u2019t beat it.\u00a0 I mean it is a nice quiet small town.\u00a0 Very good.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you think that is why people move here to raise their children?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well I think people move most places because that is where their job is. But once they get here I know very few people who lived in Cleveland that didn\u2019t like it. That said this is a bad place to live.\u00a0 It might be that their single and don\u2019t have a social life they may not care much about it, but it is not living in Memphis or Jackson.\u00a0 But a family, anyone with a family, I can\u2019t see what they would dislike about Cleveland.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I know the dynamics have changed slightly that we don\u2019t have \u2013 we are much more advanced technology wise.\u00a0 More people have a way to get away from being at home, but do you think it is that makes Cleveland such a special place?\u00a0 The neighborhoods.\u00a0 Do you feel like you could walk the neighborhoods?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s just a decent place.\u00a0 And Mississippi, and Cleveland especially, I\u2019ve lived all over the country and for all of our so-called race problems, there is a probably a smoother race relationship in Cleveland as anywhere I\u2019ve ever lived.\u00a0 When I lived in New York I would never have approached a strange black person and spoken to them.\u00a0 I would have no hesitancy at all in Cleveland of approaching a black person anywhere if I had a question or wanted to talk to them. And would expect a courteous interchange.\u00a0 It\u2019s just \u2013 people get along in that old southern hospitality or whatever it is, everybody is friendly.\u00a0 Nobody is threatened by anybody else.\u00a0 Since nobody has much of anything I guess nobody is jealous of what somebody else has.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you like the way that Cleveland is growing now?\u00a0 Do you see good things in how our communities are growing up a little bit outside of town now?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. It\u2019s still the same old Cleveland.\u00a0 I can\u2019t see that it has changed a whole lot.\u00a0 I mean it grows and changes slowly, but it\u2019s still pretty much the same.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you miss the train at all?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I do.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I do too.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The train was nice.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you miss the movie theatre?<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, very much.\u00a0 In fact since the theatre out here has closed.\u00a0 In growing up with the theatres we are very much a movie person and we tend to go out and see the latest flick.\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ve always enjoyed the movies.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We were very disappointed when that closed.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We watch a lot of the old movies as we could recall, being old now.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be fabulous if David Dallas just turned BPAC into a theatre and one night every week and just showed a movie.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That would be fun.\u00a0 You know Jeff used to do the International Foreign Films once a month.\u00a0 That was fun except he never served refreshments.\u00a0 Emily did, but Jeff didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well I\u2019ve enjoyed talking to ya\u2019ll about the neighborhood.\u00a0 Were there any other things?\u00a0 I know Noel and ya\u2019ll probably talked for hours about this.<\/p>\n

NF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, I think that was it.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well I love where we live now.\u00a0 It\u2019s not quite the same as when we were growing up.\u00a0 You mentioned the technology and different things have changed, but we still have the old fashioned neighborhood on the block that we live in.\u00a0 We have Joe and Ann Davis across the street, and Noel and I are out of town then Joe comes over and picks the papers up for us and brings them up and puts them in the garage.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Common courtesy.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, common courtesy. Noel does the same for him.\u00a0 If something that they have fixed, people next door to us, Francis Scarborough\u2019s daughter.\u00a0 We still have a little \u2013 we don\u2019t see each other on a daily basis like probably it was in the late \u201840\u2019s, but we\u2019re not sitting outside, we\u2019re sitting inside where it is air conditioned.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t have quite as many mosquitoes in the house as we do outside. But we still interact and show respect and kind of looking out for each other.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s still important to have this relationship.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, I think so.\u00a0 I would not like to live in a city where I didn\u2019t even know who was living beside me or not speaking to them.\u00a0 I mean, you just walk out in your yard and somebody else is out and you strike up a conversation and they may end up coming over and sitting down and having a cookie and having a glass of tea or a glass of lemonade.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It surprised the fire out of my neighbors in Atlanta when I stopped and talked to them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen such frightened people.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well when you go to the grocery store you make a new friend every time you go because you are standing in line waiting on somebody and waiting to get checked out and you are talking to the person that\u2019s either in front of you or behind you.<\/p>\n

CM:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And about half the time they ask you a question.<\/p>\n

EW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, this has been good.\u00a0 Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

LF:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re quite welcome, we enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

Tape cut off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

END OF DOCUMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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