Rebecca Davis interview recording, 1993 August 04
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Let me see now, let's begin. Years ago, New Bern was not in the officiant when they weighed to card the people, as they were growing up and being born. And as they did, we had to go off to other places to find out. So they had me down and my daddy says, "Will you please, she's born now." "We can't record her right now." That's what they said. It was so far back. | 0:08 |
Chris Stewart | New Bern couldn't record your birth? | 0:51 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That's right. Well, they hadn't started that yet. | 0:53 |
Chris Stewart | Really? Was that just for Black folks? | 0:55 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So my daddy carried me off to another place. They told him what to do. | 0:56 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, okay. | 1:06 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And when he came back, he has October? | 1:07 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Birthday. | 1:14 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | October the, what was it? 10th? | 1:22 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | 10th. | 1:24 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 1:24 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | 10th. | 1:24 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I think. | 1:24 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | October 10th. | 1:24 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | October the 10th, 1905. That's when he brought. | 1:27 |
Chris Stewart | Was that your real birthdate? | 1:37 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And that's what we have to go by. 1905. 10/10/05. October 10, 1905. So my daddy had to go and find and they gave it to him. So I have not no right to go no farther than what I know. | 1:38 |
Chris Stewart | Sure. | 1:59 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well. | 2:00 |
Chris Stewart | Wouldn't ask you to do that. Do you remember the house that you grew up in? | 2:00 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | You have the house? | 2:07 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Yeah. I showed it to her. | 2:07 |
Chris Stewart | Picture. | 2:07 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | You have it? | 2:07 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | We showed it to them. Tell her about it. | 2:07 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 2:07 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Tell her about the house. How it got so big. | 2:07 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, I could tell about the house. The house is large, that it had upstairs. Upstairs, and then in that upstairs we had my brother, he was on one side of that room that he was in. And at that time, they had the great big old heaters, coal heaters. Well, about it happened by happened. My mother had, it was in the summertime at that time, really. So she says, "I'll sit here and rock you." You three of you, get out of there and listen while I'm going to read the Bible. Every time she did, we had to be there. And near nobody knew, I've done forgot a lot of her Genesis exercise. | 2:07 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 3:27 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Yeah, no matter then. | 3:27 |
Chris Stewart | From her reading to you, you knew it. | 3:32 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Yeah, that's right. And that's what we did. Sat there and waited, and she read the Bible. And after that, when we grew up, my sister Shirley, that's when I just not put up there when you was hiding. I was enjoying on that. But she was more like a Chinaman. She scrunched up eyes. | 3:33 |
Chris Stewart | Why would she do that? | 4:05 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | She just did it. I guess she was born like that anyway. | 4:08 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 4:11 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But anyway, we did. I took care of her. She went to college in Fairbrook. Then she clumped after having a little trouble. She was doing that while the children were out. Chopping corn and everything, she hated to see that. And for some, because she didn't want to go there no more. She had to see the children out there, down there grubbing doing. So she went to the city. | 4:13 |
Chris Stewart | Your sister did? | 4:56 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 4:56 |
Chris Stewart | Your sister? | 4:57 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That's my sister. Screech Chapels. | 4:58 |
Chris Stewart | Where were you when she left? | 5:01 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And then, all right, now I went to the same school. Well anyway, while I was going along and scared of me trying to get straight, I was helping my sister to educate and get her diplomas and everything. And when she got her diplomas, then we landed in Virginia. But I got lost in June, Virginia. The man was supposed to take me there. And he says, as we were going here from New Bern, now take New Bern. It was slow getting around because it did not have the qualities, the people to come in and give them a good place to grow up. Some kind of factory. But New Bern felt like they could do that themselves. But after a while, it was one old factory, right? Straight up the waterfront. I forgot now the age. And we would go up there and when you turn, you have to go over there and over there was a lot of different things, and it wasn't so good. Everybody was trying to clean up whatnot at that time. | 5:02 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of work did your father do ma'am? | 6:40 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 6:42 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of work did your father do? | 6:43 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well anyway, she didn't get. | 6:45 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | She said what kind of work? | 6:49 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of work did your father do? Your father? | 6:50 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | He was an architecture. | 6:55 |
Chris Stewart | So he built this house. He designed that house? | 7:00 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | That house he did. And the church over there. | 7:03 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And he was architecture. And also, what else was it? | 7:08 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Carpenter. | 7:12 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | A carpenter indeed. | 7:13 |
Chris Stewart | What about your mother? | 7:15 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | When you said, when he do that, he'd get your picture first and he get the pictures of that. And I know anything. He was around in New Bern building and working on house building churches. And at that time, the churches and we had Colored. And finally they got together and they would have their meetings. And my dad was going and building, so frightening everything. He landed in Washington. I say for gracious sake, I got to go too. Says, well, we'll have to go according to my job. So he went home, he got the job. He got job then in Washington. And he just want to say he took the family. Then my mother-in-law. | 7:17 |
Chris Stewart | How old were you when you went? | 8:30 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | When I went? | 8:32 |
Chris Stewart | To Washington? | 8:33 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, I think I was around about 10. Yeah, so something like that. Childlike. | 8:40 |
Chris Stewart | What was that like moving to such a big city? | 8:45 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Hm? | 8:48 |
Chris Stewart | What was it like moving to such a big city? | 8:49 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Didn't worry. | 8:52 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | This was little Washington. | 8:52 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | You know why? You know why, I went there. I began here again to little to New Bern, it had the train going up and down. Everybody having a good time. All the training. You remember that, don't you? | 9:00 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | No, don't remember? | 9:11 |
Chris Stewart | No, I'm young. | 9:12 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Oh, but it. | 9:13 |
Chris Stewart | I heard about it though. | 9:14 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I know you did. All right. That train would go. And when that train go through there, it was supposed to continue until it get to, what was it, Virginia? So the train, the man, the conductor, he says, "I'll take care of you." My mother gave me a brown suit she made me. She's a seamstress too. She took that brown suit. And after having taken this brown suit, she put a tag and the conductor in there, he says, "I'll take care of it." And when she gets there, I will see that she gets to the right place. | 9:16 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And he forgot. Went on out, got his dinner. And here comes the boy, his son. He says, "Who are you?" And I was so mad with him. I'm saying, "I'm sorry." I said, "But your daddy was supposed to see that I got to the Old Dominion line and he didn't. " "Let me go run out there." And here comes a different people that wants what they call them, not the transport. And I can't think of all them. | 10:18 |
Chris Stewart | Passenger. | 10:51 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 10:56 |
Chris Stewart | Passengers? | 10:57 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Passengers. Here he comes, "I'll take you over there for—" | 10:58 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Oh, taxi cab driver. | 11:01 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | "I'll take you over there for" such and such, "$5." I says, "Keep walking. My mother told me it was just around the corner." | 11:04 |
Chris Stewart | A long corner! (Rebecca Davis laughs) | 11:19 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And so anyway, kept on like that and kept on that until they got down to my numbers. And my numbers was probably about two something in that time at my age, two dollars and some cents. I says, "Okay." And so he got in there and his son, not knowing anything. I was there right by myself and I was so mad. I didn't know what in the world to do. But I stayed there until somebody came up and he said, "I will take you to the Old Dominion line." I said "Okay." And when he said he'd take you down, I said, "How much?" I said, "It's just around the corner." My mother said, "Just around the corner. " And I kept on until I got 10. I was already 10 then. And so from that time on, we began to go. | 11:24 |
Chris Stewart | So you were only 10 years old? | 12:44 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | She made a dress for me and put my tag on me because I couldn't do it. But I did it. | 12:48 |
Chris Stewart | I can see that. | 12:55 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I did it. And so when I got there, everything, I met a girl. She said, "You know one thing, I've been going to Boston, Massachusetts and all other places a long time, but I can't do it." I said, "Look, come on, let's go." Began to become friends. And so when we went down to what we call Old Dominion lines, we came on our, we checked our books. No, our clothes, whatever it was, case. | 12:58 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 13:39 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Because we didn't have, very little know how, we checked that case. And after checking that case, we say, "Now how? I'm hungry." I say, "You are." I said, "Okay, you go." I saw a girl across the street and she looked just like one of my friends lived down the end down here, Geneva. Geneva where the end that comes up from the lake center right down here. But anyway, she says, "How are we going do it?" I looked up, I say count the number of the light poles. | 13:39 |
Chris Stewart | Oh. | 14:25 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And so we caught it with light poles. | 14:25 |
Chris Stewart | So you could find your way back. | 14:33 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That's right. And when we did that, I'm sitting down there enjoying this food eating. And I looked out there and saw this girl, well just, I called and I called and waved to her, right? Young somebody. But I called the streets. He says, I'm sorry, but I'm not that girl. I said, "Beg your pardon." And from that time, you don't catch me going to nobody's place to find out, to call nobody. You see me most likely run this and look in the window, see what my eyes didn't see. | 14:34 |
Chris Stewart | What were you going to Virginia for? To go to school? | 15:23 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I'm telling you, we are going to the Old Dominion line. And from the Old Dominion line we kept right on from one thing. I think it was up to Virginia or not to Virginia, to I've forgot now. Which would take you westward, take you east ward. And when I did, I landed in Boston. | 15:26 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | It must've, where she was going, she had relatives there. | 15:57 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | No. When I landed there, I had nothing. I had nothing to worry about, because first thing my Aunt Mary would say, they all call me kiddo. | 16:04 |
Chris Stewart | Kiddo? (laughs) | 16:21 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Kiddo. And say, "Now look kiddo, I'm going to carry you all the way around in Boston, Massachusetts as far as we can." So we did. And when we did get around, I was some kind of tired. She said, "Well kiddo, I'll tell you, let's stop in Tremont Street," and in Tremont Street you see, she would, at least there would be a little box, a little house look like you going downstairs. And when you get downstairs and it looked like another office, and they would put you on the right number. And above there, the trains were just going. And so I was walking under there, and come to find out when I got under there, they knew and they let me know, see, now to be sure that meant to tell me that I had to go back under that same place, go back and up there was nothing but electrical trains. And so I got up there somehow or another, I don't know. | 16:26 |
Chris Stewart | Wow. | 17:48 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But anyway, when I got on down the line there, they told me, they said, "It's good that you are living," because you see I was looking right under there. And there was a way that you could go in, but it had this writing, "Be careful." And so when I saw that thing looked up there, I was careful myself. (laughs) | 17:52 |
Chris Stewart | So you weren't supposed to go there? | 18:23 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | No. But anyway. | 18:25 |
Chris Stewart | But you did. | 18:28 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I did.(laughs) And when we came on back and when we got down there and from there is to, I forgot the name of the street, the place from before I could get to Foster, Massachusetts because it was east. So when we did, I was so tired. The man says, "Your friend said she can't get there. And she knew farther down than you do. Now what you going to do about it?" I looked on my tag and thought about what my mother said, "Be careful." I said, well anyway, I got, "How much you charge?" He was $2. "Well, I ain't got none," this girl saying, "I ain't got no," made me so mad when she said, "I ain't got no." I looked on my card. I said, "Well, I'll take it, I'll pay it." Try girl down the line there. And then after that they had to come back to this main line that we were talking to. And all those large buildings, those large buildings just like coast of New Bern had some large. But all of these buildings were close together. | 18:31 |
Chris Stewart | Really? | 20:15 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Five and six stories high. And I was three. And there was a school right in front of my house. That was just an ordinary school. And I was not supposed to go there because I passed that. And I looked down the line, I heard somebody, "Kiddo." This is the man, my uncle. | 20:16 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 20:47 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | He said, "Here, come on, come on." And I looked at the man, I said, just really Tremont Street. | 20:56 |
Chris Stewart | So you found your way back? | 21:00 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I was on the train. I got on a little strider car. And when it did that, he says, "That's right. That's it. That's your face. There you live." So, or did. But I had to remember, don't ask anybody because they might put you off them. They may not know what you know about it. Lord came in. Thank you very much. | 21:04 |
Chris Stewart | So ma'am, did you go up to live with your aunt then for a period of time? | 21:33 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Then missed it. I stayed there a good while. | 21:38 |
Chris Stewart | Really? | 21:40 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And so after staying there, my mother, before I did that, you see my mother had been carrying my brother and if she'd have a baby, anything she would do. But my mother was the mother of, I'd say about 12 children. | 21:41 |
Chris Stewart | Wow. | 22:08 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Two sets of twins. And those twins, I was jealous of them. | 22:10 |
Chris Stewart | How come? | 22:22 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Because they all loved the best. We had them out there, right there. My father then after I had been to Boston, we'd go and come. So anyway, when we did, they just asked a lot of questions. Asked a lot of questions. And I really tried to. So I let that lady go on that two daughters. Then they brought me back to Massachusetts, see? And when they brought me back, they also told me, he said, "Now you do like your mother said, you watch out," and whenever you get ready, I says, "Okay, I'm going to put my case up in these lockers up here." I put my case up there in the locker. | 22:24 |
Chris Stewart | Babies? | 23:26 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So anyway, from that time on, I didn't tell you. | 23:26 |
Chris Stewart | Can you tell me about the twins? | 23:38 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | The what? | 23:39 |
Chris Stewart | The twins? Tell me about the babies? | 23:40 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, the twins, the porch was higher than this porch. And the porch where I had, and I told you all the time, jealous. So two sets of twins, boy and a girl, and one, we over there. My place we had was no such thing as a place going down there like that now. That was a high hill. And that high hill, they had a great big stage just like you have down to New Bern, and the people would land there and do all they could. All right. And from that stage, we'd go in sometimes. For the children have, the house was built just about that tall. And I mean from the roof, from the floor. And I know anything, I was jealous of these twin babies anyhow. I had the carriage shaking and they all out there playing out good. "Play ball!" "Play ball!" When I looked back there I said, "Ahhh!!" (laughs) And looked there. Carriage was right on top of the baby. | 23:45 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | If you had thought. | 25:26 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But instead of doing that, I cried and called mama. I said, "Mama, mama!" Mother came out, I said, "The babies down there." But that was the best way to do, not stand there and cry right on. Well, I thought the babies would be dead. But you know those babies, they lived. | 25:28 |
Chris Stewart | Babies bounce back, don't they? | 25:58 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Yeah. And they lived. Oh, but they, | 26:00 |
Chris Stewart | Where did you go to school when you were young? Did you go to school here in James City? | 26:03 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I went down to James City a while, was a while. From James City I took pens, and the girl that I was just showing you, made it up, I gave her her diploma. | 26:09 |
Chris Stewart | Right. You were telling me that. | 26:28 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I let her go. And when she got through, then I had to help somebody else. | 26:29 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Elementary school, jump to college. | 26:38 |
Chris Stewart | I see. | 26:39 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So anyway, when I helped her, I helped her, she went through college I'm telling you. | 26:39 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | She wants to know where you went to elementary school. | 26:47 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I went to elementary school down the road here. | 26:49 |
Chris Stewart | What about high school? | 26:52 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And when I went to high school, was to, well just. | 26:54 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | West Street. | 26:59 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 27:00 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Went to West Street. | 27:01 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | West Street. | 27:02 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | And then from there, went to Washington. | 27:02 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | When we went to West Street, I was sorry. | 27:04 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | West Street. | 27:05 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | There's a great big old steps from the auditorium up high West Street. We going down, we couldn't get down there. And so when we have our classes, we had a better way coming on in. I had no way to do all the trees down. That wouldn't cut many of the trees down West Street. Okay. So when I got ready to eat, I cook my food. My mother always had me a nice little basket or something. And I went up beside the building, the great building and ate my food. And when I got through, I walked around trees and I looked up there, I said, "Wonder why they don't cut some of these trees down." Saying to myself now. And that wasn't my business. And after that we got along pretty good. | 27:11 |
Chris Stewart | Did you have to walk the bridge over to West Street? Did you have to walk to school? | 28:23 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I didn't miss it. | 28:28 |
Chris Stewart | Did you walk? | 28:30 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I didn't ride. | 28:31 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Did you walk to West Street or did they have a bus there? | 28:33 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Oh no, I wasn't. I never went to West Street. I never went to James City. | 28:37 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | She doesn't know one thing about it. | 28:39 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | I went to school with her when she teaching in Vanceboro. | 28:39 |
Chris Stewart | Oh. Ah. We just came back from Vanceboro. | 28:47 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 28:48 |
Chris Stewart | We just interviewed some people in Vanceboro. | 28:48 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Did you get any chance to get to see them? | 28:52 |
Chris Stewart | No, I didn't. I only interviewed two people today. | 28:56 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | When I went to Vanceboro, the lady up on some street in New Bern, I forgot. You remember? | 28:59 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Yeah. | 29:08 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | What's her name? | 29:09 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Ms. Nelson. | 29:09 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And no, not Nelson, I'm talking about another player. Said nothing that I had to go and pick up two or three teachers to go. | 29:15 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, to take that. | 29:25 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And so when we did that, we put her in between the driver and myself. But there's so many of them report, I think she was up there. She was so small. And then one of the ladies said, "Look here girl." You know what you talking about. Look here, let me tell you I dressed too much and put on. I got too many nice clothes for you to be sitting around here messing up. Yeah. I can't stand it. | 29:26 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | She carried. Reteach it with, she took the ride. | 30:14 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | She was. | 30:17 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | She. | 30:17 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | She was going to school | 30:17 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | And secretary. I got dirty every day, I was talking about dirty rag and everything. She took the time off- | 30:20 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | When she got to school, everything. She was going up there tall after a while because I stayed there in Vanceboro, I've forgotten how many years. | 30:30 |
Chris Stewart | Long time. | 30:44 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | About 17. | 30:44 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 30:44 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But anyway, I went there. And I just had to tell, when she was in school she was very small and start here. That meant I had to study. I taught to Vanceboro a long time. I don't recall. But it was a long time. And when I did get up there, they had a nice merry-go-round for the boys. They had a little, another place over there. You go down, you can't get up, on what you call that? Whatever may call it. | 30:48 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | The boys already jumped the ditch and that merry go round for everyone. | 31:44 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But anyway, the different ones, the children would do it for the fun of it. And they'd get that thing and carry around fast. I know I should be out there, the muddy one. | 31:44 |
Chris Stewart | You were all muddy? | 31:58 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Mm-hmm. | 31:59 |
Chris Stewart | You were playing with boys? | 32:00 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Yes. | 32:01 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Always played with boys. | 32:01 |
Chris Stewart | Okay. | 32:01 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | She wanted one of the fifth grade children. Yeah. And the tallest one. My class had to be on that side. You see the one part of the school over there? The first beginning of it, because you had to go on home then come I be down there. | 32:11 |
Chris Stewart | So how big was your school? How big was the Vanceboro school? | 32:31 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 32:36 |
Chris Stewart | How big was the school at Vanceboro? | 32:36 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That school was, I tell you, how many people? | 32:39 |
Chris Stewart | How many rooms did it have? | 32:46 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | I think when she taught, that it was a regular. | 32:49 |
Chris Stewart | The big school? | 32:51 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Regular size school like this then, had the old building. | 32:51 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Connected. | 32:58 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Housed the eighth, second grade. | 32:58 |
Chris Stewart | Okay. | 32:58 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | I mean seventh grade. They had this long hallway. It was U-shaped and then the new part was on the other end. Regular sized, modern sized school. | 33:01 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | No, they couldn't do anything until, and they had to have a buses up there. And I had to try to look out for them too, keep the children from doing it at that time. And all at once, one little fella, he said, "Well now I'm going to start Ms. Davis." I said, "Well you can, do you have your license?" "Yes ma'am." And we got to do this for a while. I says, okay then I'm going to take charge. No sir, we did that. Here comes a little boy. Just about six years old right quick was going to grab it, ran into it then about. And so we had to take that in charge. | 33:12 |
Chris Stewart | What other schools did you teach at? | 34:05 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 34:07 |
Chris Stewart | What other schools? Where did you teach when you first started teaching? | 34:08 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Where? What's the name of the place, Myrtle? | 34:12 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Well, you first started teaching, you taught Vanceboro. | 34:14 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | What about? | 34:18 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Before then, you taught down in Adams Creek. | 34:19 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | No, I'm not talking about that. | 34:22 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Well, that's what she was though. In Adams Creek. | 34:24 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Now the first one. | 34:25 |
Chris Stewart | First one. | 34:25 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | One room classroom. | 34:25 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | The very first one. | 34:29 |
Chris Stewart | Very first one. | 34:30 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I had to go to Adams Creek because my daddy carried me. He said I want to go to farthest way from home. | 34:30 |
Chris Stewart | The farthest? How come? | 34:40 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So when I got there to Adams Creek, wait a minute, now. | 34:41 |
Chris Stewart | I'm listening. | 34:44 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Everybody was very glad to go. And before I got there I went by water and we went. | 34:47 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | On ferry. | 34:55 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | In on one of these tug boats. And it had something else, another little boat. And that boat was doing like this. | 34:57 |
Chris Stewart | Oh. | 35:04 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And a preacher was in there with me and it rolled. And I said, "What you doing there for?" Scared. And when I looked up, there was a gray, big, old, large, looked like a large fish. And so the man stopped this tug boat. He said, "You see that tail there? Now that's," the man, "That's the tail of a big fish." And that type of fish eats early in the morning. And when he eats, he eats the nice great big sheds and all like that and his tail is up. That's the way it did, I said, "Good [indistinct 00:35:54]." So the thing came, the boat kept going and I kept on knowing a thing, I saw it. But I wasn't frightened because I had went by his orders, the tugboat man and forgot about preacher because he was a— | 35:04 |
Chris Stewart | I got too close. | 36:17 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But anyway, when I went to that place, that place was very, very nice to me. When I got there, I went to a building and it had stair steps going up in now. And I was getting ready for to stay there a while. | 36:24 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | In [indistinct 00:37:00]. In the country. | 36:59 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But anyway, by not staying there, the lady was very nice. She said, "Well, tell Ms. Davis I wouldn't accept you to go there because people of all kind," and always say, "I know you good, and I'm not going to let you go up there and have a ball like the rest of them." I say thank you very much. And from that time, we met— my daddy's met me. He went on down and they invited us to the church. To teach in the church. I taught my church two weeks before I began to think. I says to myself, "These people are very nice to me. And this is a church and I cannot put what I want. I cannot give the different plays and different things to the children like I want to." | 37:04 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So I called one of the most important ones. They say, "Ms. Davis, you can stay in there." I say, "No, I'm sorry." So they took good pains and carried me to another place to stay a while until they could get straight. And so they got a nice little place and well, I got tickled. The lady was nice. And she gave me warning. She says, "I have a child, I have to nurse." Everything. I say, "You do?" | 38:22 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | We had school during that time. | 39:26 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Wait a minute, that child was grown. Just want to say that child, I don't know how, I can't say. But she was just as tall as I am now. | 39:27 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | About five. Six, seven years older. | 39:40 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And she called her up and make her nurse her and have her. | 39:40 |
Chris Stewart | She had teeth? | 39:47 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Yes, she nursed her. Have you ever heard talk of that? | 39:48 |
Chris Stewart | Uh-uh. | 39:53 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, I'll see that. | 39:53 |
Chris Stewart | Have you? | 39:53 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I'm telling you. | 39:53 |
Chris Stewart | You saw it. | 39:53 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I saw it. That's the years back. | 39:58 |
Chris Stewart | Why do you think she was doing that? | 40:01 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | For a long time of that the people got thinking about it. See, Ms. Davis is not supposed to be down here. | 40:05 |
Chris Stewart | How come? | 40:11 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Because the people have to walk too far and what we are going to do, we are going to make, getting a way for her to get down there. And so when we got down there, we saw this little school that they had been going and walking going on in the house. So they wouldn't let me do that. They say, "Now, you just do what you say." I says, okay. And I stayed there around. I looked around and of course some of the things I really forgot. But the people were so nice to me. And anyway, I looked at the place. | 40:14 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | She taught. | 41:07 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I said, "What can I do? I want to be out here." But the people were so nice to me. So anyway, the way I did, I put on a program and this program, it insisted on using the parents, see how well the parents could do and see how well the children could do too. And well they had such a good time down there. They didn't know. And who knew, they would [indistinct 00:41:49], "We want you here. We don't want you to leave." | 41:09 |
Chris Stewart | Huh? | 41:53 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I said to myself, I can't. So I told her, I said, I will have to improve on my studies. I'll have to improve and go. And then again, you remember I can't get there until every two weeks or no, once a month. I didn't see my mother. And as fast as they would give me that money and we had problems and whatnot. And see I was being paid anyhow by the state. But then when I got that, I sent it to my mother. And my mother says, "I don't want that. Don't keep it. You keep it still." Now I say no, because I can't get you no less than every, at least one or two months. So I sent it to my mother and my mother took that money, put it in the bank. And when I got back I had a loan. | 42:00 |
Chris Stewart | So your mother saved the money for you? | 43:09 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That's right. She saved that money for every baby. And after a while when I got ready to leave, guess what they gave me? | 43:12 |
Chris Stewart | What? | 43:25 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | About 15 chickens. | 43:28 |
Chris Stewart | What were you going to do with 15 chickens? | 43:36 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Can bring them home. And eggs. They got I don't know how many up there. I say, "Well I want you to stay here all the time." I said "I can't cause I have to go back and prove my studies," and whatnot. Well, bless the Lord when I came here, I don't even know who. | 43:40 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | [indistinct 00:44:15]. | 44:14 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | To tell the truth about it, I don't know who. But they saw that I got home here with these chickens. (laughs) | 44:14 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | She taught at James City school off of the top part, almost everybody laying chickens. | 44:27 |
Chris Stewart | Really? | 44:30 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Cove City, she's talking. | 44:34 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, Cove City too. | 44:34 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | My dad was so surprised. "What in the world you're doing, coming—?" | 44:34 |
Chris Stewart | Wow. | 44:38 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Yeah. You. | 44:39 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | 41 years. | 44:39 |
Chris Stewart | In the schools, in the Craven County school system. | 44:39 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | 41 years. She taught at [indistinct 00:44:47], at the military school. That's where she's retired from, kindergarten, military school. | 44:39 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well anyway. | 44:39 |
Chris Stewart | You were a teacher for a long time, weren't you? | 44:53 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Bet your things right. After I went to Elizabeth City, I went here, went to Elizabeth City. And after going to Elizabeth City, I stayed there and they made me, I always tried while I was in there to get out of behind all children that were too loose with the boys. See? And what I did, I let them try, see what they had been doing before I started. And anyway therefore, I went to the boss [indistinct 00:45:54]. He said, "Ms. Davis, one thing we going to promote you. You are going up to that door and when anybody comes you have to let them know. They have to let you know. And they better not try to get no boys in there. You let us know." And that's where I got my sit to the door and once see a boy want to come, I say, "What is it?" I cannot say. | 44:56 |
Chris Stewart | —girls about the boys? | 0:02 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, they would come in. They had been, before the other teacher, I don't know the teacher, was letting them do anything. | 0:08 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 0:16 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | See? I say, "Okay, girls. Line up. Get right." "Where are we going?" "Wherever I feel like." And I would not let them go by themselves. I got right on up, and I got out on that campus. And I watched them. I saw they wanted to get with the boys. I said, "All right. Line up. Follow me, girls." (laughs) And I'd take them around the main school, and give them a little exercise. And do whatever I wanted them to do. And I was sure they would not be alone with the boys. | 0:17 |
Chris Stewart | I see. | 1:11 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I could see the boys running round. "Lord, no. We could go up yonder to so and so and do something." I'd say, "Go along, boys. Have your time right now. But girls, get busy. Follow me." But anyway, I had a glorious time even teaching, going to school, and whatnot. Because I took my time. I tried to do right. And when I did that, if I see anybody around and just, I'm right there, right now. | 1:13 |
Chris Stewart | Were you active in your church, too? Can you tell me about that? | 1:56 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, I am a— | 2:04 |
Chris Stewart | What did you used to do? | 2:05 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | —I am a church member. I have been a church member ever since the church was over in James City years ago. And we would look right out there. There was a river. | 2:10 |
Chris Stewart | Oh. | 2:19 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And Solomon Phillips was sitting back at a church way back up there because he was selling. And people try to go across that little bridge or whatnot. Oh, that's cut out from these places. | 2:21 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | It's called a trestle. | 2:37 |
Chris Stewart | It's a what? | 2:37 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Trestle. Trestle. | 2:38 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But anyway, we did that. | 2:39 |
Chris Stewart | What church is this? | 2:44 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Mount Shiloh. You ought to see— | 2:44 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Missionary Baptist. | 2:44 |
Chris Stewart | Missionary Baptist. | 2:44 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Mount Shiloh. | 2:44 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember your baptism? | 2:51 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Hmm? | 2:54 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember getting baptized? | 2:54 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I got baptized while the church was down there. And the church had the—Wait a minute. You come in the door, and the choir would go upstairs, and they'd do the singing and everything. | 2:57 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | All right. On each side of that church, there was still, just like people would—What is it? The men would go right on up. They had it walking. I can't think of the name of it now. But if they walked right on up, and they could look right down on the preacher, see? | 3:18 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, the balcony? | 3:46 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | All right. On the balcony, on each side. There'd be one on one side. One on that side, and one on that side. But it aggravated me so bad. I was young, being shown up. | 3:50 |
Chris Stewart | How come it aggravated you? | 4:06 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Because every time I would get on out, my mother said I'd get sick. And she had just bought me a brand new suit, brand new dress. And I didn't want nobody to mess around while I was sitting there. And I was getting tired. | 4:09 |
Chris Stewart | You looked real good in that suit, huh? | 4:33 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That's right. | 4:41 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So from that place where you could go right on, right on, and the pastor, he'd preach and go on. And what put me against one man, or two of—A lot of people up there. One on each side. So plenty of them. But the one on each side, or the one on this side, he said, "There ain't nothing to that." Lie flat. | 4:41 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And we had a stove in the center of the church. | 5:12 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Pot belly stove. | 5:18 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And all we had to do is have it all warm when we get there, down there. | 5:22 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 5:30 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And when we did, everything was okay. But this young man, I don't know where they said he was from, ran from Texas or whatnot, but he said, "There wasn't nothing to it. Nothing to what to they're saying. See, I don't believe it." Right out loud to the people. And that made the people upset. But he did not upset the preacher. He knew he was going to have something like that. | 5:31 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But anyway. I remember, at that time, I was still young, and at that time I think I must been about 10, hardly that. And I was busy playing. And I used to hear all the different ones playing the music. And I was easy to catch. Stomp diddle do do, do do do do. That stuff. Now, I couldn't think about it. And he did it. | 6:11 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So after that, they moved over to this church, Mount Shiloh. And when they moved over to this church, my brother and my father, just want to say, built the first, not including the dinette and everything back there, but from that pastoral place right on up, my daddy built that. He bought it up. He had- | 6:51 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | There's someone over there. | 7:28 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | —he had his— | 7:28 |
Chris Stewart | What? | 7:30 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | —everything there. | 7:31 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | [indistinct 00:07:33]. | 7:32 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | You don't know anything about that? | 7:33 |
Chris Stewart | Mount Shiloh, built Mount Shiloh? | 7:33 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | What? My brother— | 7:39 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Yes, with some other men. | 7:40 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 7:40 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | My brother did. | 7:40 |
Chris Stewart | Did he design it as well? | 7:42 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | My brother was— | 7:44 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Her father designed the church. | 7:45 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | —my brother was much older than I was. And so something happened. Something happened, and he got sick. And when he got sick, and he got along all right for a while. And he said, "You know one thing, sister?" I said, "What?" "They took my clothes, and they took this. And they never brought it back to me." | 7:47 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So after a while, they got together while it's going along, going on, coming on out. He said, "Let me show you how good I'm doing now." And when he did, he said, "You see how well I'm walking now? You see how I'm doing now?" He said, "Well now, when I get home, I'll be a real man." You know it? Ensured the world- | 8:25 |
Chris Stewart | Was he? | 9:00 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | He was well because he died. And he tried to do the best thing. He was in the church up there. Everything I could think about that, I could think about that. But anyway, the horse and buggies and all like that. She has it. She took it out. I have had it on a special place. So she has it. | 9:00 |
Chris Stewart | The pictures? | 9:26 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Hmm? | 9:27 |
Chris Stewart | Pictures? | 9:27 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Picture? | 9:28 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Yeah. She's going to look at them and do whatever. | 9:30 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | They're in there. | 9:34 |
Chris Stewart | I can make copies of them tonight. | 9:35 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Some kind of a factory behind there, this great big nothing but grass, and they're trying to get the James. They can't get to James, can't get across there. And this factory came as though it was putting out, I wouldn't say right, because it was putting out something. But it was a big factory back then. | 9:37 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 10:05 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And after that factory was going on, I don't want to say it was one thing and it was another. So that's the reason I can't say because I was real young. But anyway, that factory right around there, and around by that factory, I have helped a many a soul. A family came from Durham or someplace, and they wanted to have a nice place in the country. | 10:06 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | [indistinct 00:10:46]. | 10:46 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And they did that. They sat down there, and they had a good time. | 10:46 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Give me another one. Let me see. | 10:52 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | You seen them already. | 10:58 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That was the house. The house was right over there. See? | 11:02 |
Chris Stewart | Over there? | 11:09 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | No, not that was there. | 11:10 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | The house. | 11:11 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | The other house. That house was over there. | 11:13 |
Chris Stewart | Over there? | 11:15 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Mm-hmm. | 11:15 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Over there. Oh— | 11:15 |
Chris Stewart | None of it's left? | 11:15 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | No, they had it burned down. If they had known what we know now, the historical society could have restored it. | 11:18 |
Chris Stewart | Yes. | 11:24 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | The preservation. They got a preservation society. | 11:25 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 11:27 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Could have— | 11:28 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That wide. Was that long. | 11:28 |
Chris Stewart | How long? The mantle was three, what? Three feet long. The glass? | 11:32 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Look, look, look. That long. Beautiful glass, and on top, it was beautiful built. Because my daddy, Starkville, he was a architect and whatnot. But anyway, so many people can do good things way back then, too. So anyway, he did it. And that house stayed there, and my nephew, Samuel Elliot—See, that's my name. If you want to know my whole name—Would you want to? | 11:35 |
Chris Stewart | I'm ready. | 12:24 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | When my mother was pregnant with me, two men came dressed in little beautiful black coat, like the mayor. One says, "Name her Rebecca." And the other one says, "Name her Hershel." No. And from one to vice versa. So she went to the grand ones, the highest in the Baptist and all like that. And they say, "The best thing I can say, you'll name her Rebecca." | 12:26 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And the next one— | 13:05 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Rebecca Hershel. | 13:06 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | —"Name her Hershel." Because they had that— | 13:07 |
Chris Stewart | What's your middle name? | 13:11 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Huh? | 13:12 |
Chris Stewart | What is? | 13:13 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Hershel. | 13:13 |
Chris Stewart | Hershel? | 13:14 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | No, because he just aggravated her so bad, so she went by that. So my name is this Rebecca Hershel Elliot Davis. | 13:16 |
Chris Stewart | That's a long name. | 13:32 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | When I was in school, they'd cut some of it off. | 13:41 |
Chris Stewart | You cut some of it off when you were in school? | 13:41 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Yeah. | 13:41 |
Chris Stewart | What'd you cut? | 13:41 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And I have some places now that I— | 13:41 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | [indistinct 00:13:47]. | 13:45 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | —cut off. | 13:46 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 13:47 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I have little concerns now that I have Mrs. R. E. Davis. | 13:48 |
Chris Stewart | Ah. | 13:57 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Some have the flag to it, and some did it, some don't, some like that. | 13:58 |
Chris Stewart | Which place did you like teaching at best, Ms. Davis? What was your favorite place to teach? | 14:03 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Vanceboro. | 14:09 |
Chris Stewart | Why? | 14:14 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Because I was with the principal, and he was exact. | 14:17 |
Chris Stewart | Oh. | 14:28 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | He would not let things go. And he would make—Let us get this. | 14:28 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Yeah, she's listening. | 14:35 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | He would make those teachers stay until about, let's see, about four o'clock, like music. And they didn't want to. And after that, he says, "Well, I'm not going to stick my head in the fire for your, or the auditorium." In the auditorium. And they had, I've forgotten, I read to 50 or 60 students, or I mean to say teachers. But anyway, I did this. | 14:36 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I say, "You say you can't be taught. You can't do that." I say, "Well, I'll stick my head in it. This is not the first time I have taught under the same superintendent." And then I read folks and explained why. And so afterward, the teachers all got together. | 15:24 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | "Mrs. Davis, you got something to lose." I said, "What do I have to lose?" "If we go there and ask Dr. Hill to do so-and-so-and-so, we'll lose our job." I say, "If you do, I know I'll lose mine too." "No, you won't. Because we can't talk to him, but you will." She kept right on. | 15:49 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I said, "Well, okay." I went to him, and he told me, "I'm sorry. I can't just stick my head in the fire for that." I said, "If you can't stick your head in fire, I'll just stick mine in there because I have been and taught under the same superintendent." I said, "When he said I wasn't going to have anything to do with the little one-teacher school in Havelock, someplace down there." And that was even before that time. | 16:18 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But in that time I says, "Go ahead and try." The teachers, all of them about stepped up on top of me and begged me so hard. So I went to him. When I told him what I did, he said, "Well, if you can't stick your head into it and everything, I'll do." He said, "Why did you do that?" | 17:06 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I say, "The man told me there was no way that I could get a good school. Wouldn't teacher school down here about somewhere down there? Because first his place, he hadn't got the money." And well anyway, the superintendent, or somebody, came. The window was breaking, was broken, and four on each side in the glass. | 17:36 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 18:06 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And that was already bad where it had been, the people were going right by the church, right on by the school. And the trash and everything, and caused that building to be like that. And so where they were looked on up, there was a place. I looked down here by the stove, there was a place down there. And I looked over here. There's something else. A bucket or something. I don't know. Oh, to the door. And you was still down there. | 18:08 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So anyway, I took it easy. I say, "Now, I weigh just as good until when he said I can't stick my head in the fire," because he was afraid of the principal. I said, "Well, I'm not afraid." I said, "I'm not afraid about it." | 18:51 |
Chris Stewart | What were you trying to fight? | 19:14 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So anyway— | 19:16 |
Chris Stewart | What were you trying to fight for? | 19:16 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I didn't have to do no fighting. | 19:19 |
Chris Stewart | What were you trying to get? | 19:21 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, what I tried to get is the teachers wanted to be free at four o'clock. | 19:22 |
Chris Stewart | I see. Okay. | 19:35 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | See? Because Fort Barnwell, they were still working. And these teachers were here, and I had charge of the buses and everything like that. So they had go by. So when they began to build on this building, the building was facing like this. All right? Then when it got down there, it was a long way down here. All right? And down here, I was on that building. And then there was another one coming across, and then that one came back up here. | 19:35 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And so when we did that, he said, "Mrs. Davis, I ain't going to stick my head in that. These people just got to go ahead and stay here till four, something like that. And then they'll have to go ahead and have their place." And that was trying to help the people, help them. So all the time, they have a special service for the people to meet at once a month, with the parents. | 20:20 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And so when he commenced to talking about he wasn't going to stick his head. I say, "Well, I don't have to stick my head, and I won't. And I'll go ahead and do it." And when he found out that I was going to do that thing— | 21:05 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | Chris, I'll see you tomorrow. | 21:21 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Who do you think did it? | 21:22 |
Chris Stewart | Have a good evening. Sorry. | 21:22 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That's all right. | 21:22 |
Chris Stewart | I should have— | 21:22 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | No problem. | 21:22 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | He went just as straight. | 21:32 |
Myrtle Davis Downing | I should have done better. | 21:32 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Went just as straight and told him. He said, "Well, you tell them." I said, "You should tell them. You know. So I'm going to let you tell them." And so when I told them, they were happy to get it. | 21:33 |
Chris Stewart | I bet. | 21:50 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | See? And the main thing, all they wanted to get, they were keeping them done until about four o'clock. See, they wanted to get out and have some pleasure, but they had to teach something else and make them stay in the auditorium and do this and do the other. | 21:52 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 22:11 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So they didn't like the doctor. | 22:12 |
Chris Stewart | Mr. Hill? | 22:16 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | That's right. | 22:18 |
Chris Stewart | Ma'am, do you remember seeing any Jim Crow signs? You know the Jim Crow signs growing up? | 22:19 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Whereabout? | 22:28 |
Chris Stewart | Wherever. Did you see them anywhere? | 22:29 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I never did get a chance. There's one right there near, but it wasn't no junk trailer. But my daddy had been working for this gentleman, and they got along fine. And they were talking, and when they talked, my daddy, he would say, "Yes, sir." And when I came on up from where I had been being up here, you know where I just now told you, he looked at me. He said, "I don't know." | 22:32 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I said, "Well, you might as well know because I'm going. I've done talked to the principal." And that principal, he was a principal at that time. I said, "And that man, he didn't do what he wanted to do." And so when he didn't do what he wanted to do, I read it just as good till all the children got out. When they got out, I said, "He's not going to have his way." This is the same principal. But anyway, I say, "You all clean and be careful." Now, this is down Cherry Point, right down this one. | 23:19 |
Chris Stewart | Okay. | 24:16 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And he says, "You be careful while you are down there." I says, "Okay." And [indistinct 00:24:26] to goodness, went on down there. And everything, everything from one to the other. Oh Lord, I'm telling you. But anywhere. | 24:18 |
Chris Stewart | Everything from one to the other, what? | 24:42 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | You see, now, what we wanted, we wanted the church. We wanted this place. And when there was a street going right down and making a big old to-do in it, they finally got tired. And when they got tired, finally they say, "I don't know. I don't know." | 24:46 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | "Well, you're going to know." This is the principal. He was rough, mean to them, and the people scared. So when he said he was tired, he wasn't going to stick his head in the fire, I said, "Well, I'll stick mine in head in the fire." I said, "Because I've been to a case." I said, "The man said I couldn't do that to you. And I did it, and the people were with." | 25:16 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | He said, "Well, okay then. Go ahead." And here come the people, and the teachers in this place. | 25:47 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I say, "Here it is. You all afraid to do. I'm not." I said, "Well now, I'm going to take it easy. I'll let them." I said now, "This was a one-teacher school." | 26:03 |
Chris Stewart | Was this in Vance—? No, this wasn't in Vanceboro. | 26:26 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Hmm? | 26:27 |
Chris Stewart | Where was this. | 26:29 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Now, in Vanceboro, the same thing. What Vanceboro, I'm telling you, they kept right on me. Warned me, warned me. So finally, I gave up, and I said, "Well, you'll do so and so in Vanceboro." And so he gave in to me because I told him when he said he couldn't stick his head, I said, "I'll stick my head." I said, "I taught a one-teacher school." | 26:31 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 27:09 |
Chris Stewart | Ma'am, when you were a teacher, when you were teaching, did you ever go visit parents? Go to visit parents at people's homes? | 27:10 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I go around, and they'd come to clean me. They were nice. | 27:18 |
Chris Stewart | They were nice. | 27:22 |
Chris Stewart | When would you go visit parents? When? | 27:23 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | You going back to, what is it? Vanceboro? | 27:30 |
Chris Stewart | Back to Vanceboro or Adams Creek. When you were at Adams Creek or Fort Barnwell. At any of those times, did you go visit parents? Say, when students didn't come to school. | 27:30 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, I'm telling you, they came to school. | 27:47 |
Chris Stewart | They did? | 27:49 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Every one of them. | 27:50 |
Chris Stewart | All the time? | 27:52 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Every time. | 27:54 |
Chris Stewart | Even the students who had to work on the farms? | 27:55 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | No. They, what work did they do? I don't really know what kind, but when they would appear before me, everything would be smooth. See, when I'd go down there, they'd done got the church, came to the church, got the church right. Had me in the church teaching. I couldn't stand there. | 27:57 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah, I know that. | 28:28 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I couldn't stand that. But— | 28:29 |
Chris Stewart | That was at Adams Creek, right? | 28:30 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | All right. That was Adams Creek. | 28:33 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So now here to Vanceboro, I went there, and my principal was rough to all of them. And they were afraid. Well, that's why they wanted me to go and talk to him. | 28:35 |
Chris Stewart | How was the principal at Havelock? | 28:55 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Hmm? | 28:59 |
Chris Stewart | How was the principal at Havelock when you were teaching there? | 28:59 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Oh, that was good. Everything. Forgot that Havelock, it was another place above, before Havelock started. There was another place there. I've forgotten now. A little school. | 29:02 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, really? | 29:17 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And then they had a nice little place to—Auditorium. But still, it was small. You know what I mean? But they're real nice too. And everything went along smooth with it. | 29:18 |
Chris Stewart | How did you meet your husband? (Davis laughs) How did you meet him? | 29:45 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Wait just a minute. | 29:54 |
Chris Stewart | What are you giggling about? | 30:03 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Oh, I guess I met him when I had this accident. Because the first house had, it was high, and they had not completed it. And my husband was in the next house right beside me, but not that house there. Or both of them houses. But anyway, he was in there helping to do, and the lady that was in there had some children, had a child, something like that. And somehow or another, the house caught fire there. To that house right next door. But it's not the same house. | 30:04 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 30:51 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Because it got burned. And that's the way. | 30:51 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And when I got to my door, my door of this house was not completed, and it was high. And I went to fall. When I started out the door, the door was hard to get out. I pushed and pushed, and then when I did, I say, "Well, if I push and go down that deep place, I'll fall right back on my head, and I can't do that." I turned then. And so that's the time when I met him. He came on out. He says, "Get busy." | 30:54 |
Chris Stewart | Get busy? | 31:46 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Talking to the boys that were working for him. | 31:46 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, I see. | 31:46 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | "Get busy. Get busy." And he got—Let me see how he told it. Said, "You teach. You drive. And you be careful. And I'm going to say they don't allow me go out." He say, "I'm sorry. I'm going. Who do you think I'm going to leave? Leave my wife?" And so they carried her, carried me to this place. | 31:46 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And he's a little bitty fella. You can see it over on the street down there on West Street, somewhere like that. And they say, "Well, you're just going to do." But anyway, he got in there. There's my head and my feet. And he said, "Now, you go, and you go to that place," going to the, no, you still, I don't know the name of the, but it is right on West Street now. A little bitty place there. When I went there, he went there. | 32:16 |
Chris Stewart | Were you already married? | 33:08 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Hmm? | 33:09 |
Chris Stewart | Were you already married? | 33:10 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | No. For this— | 33:11 |
Chris Stewart | This is before you met? | 33:12 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Yeah. That's about right. | 33:13 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | And he was so particular. | 33:15 |
Chris Stewart | Huh. Particular about what? | 33:18 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | He liked me. | 33:19 |
Chris Stewart | He liked you. Did you like him? | 33:22 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, anywhere, when I began to see, I said, "I don't know whether to marry or what now?" So I asked the Lord. | 33:24 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I guess it sounds strange. Just like you see that house is doing over there, back there. | 33:27 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 33:45 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Well, we had a big place right back on this side. Right over there near the street. And I had a horse in there, everything. And the horse was white. And then whenever that horse gets sick, I'd get sick. And then after a while, I began to think, and I said, "This man, I don't know whether I'm going to like this man or not." And I went up there and looked up to the sky. You could see the sun looked like coming up. And I said, "Good lord, please, please help me to get the right husband. Let me know if the husband that I like." And the Lord, I didn't hear nothing much from Hm. | 33:47 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | But you bet your sweet life, the man (laughs) this same old (laughing) [indistinct 00:35:10] where I didn't like him. He climbed up the ladder. He climbed up the ladder for something because I got something helping, and somebody got there. But anyway, he climbed up that ladder, and he saw. He said, "You see that ladder?" And he was good to me, I changed. And I got that that man. | 34:45 |
Chris Stewart | You got him? Huh? | 35:41 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | I changed my mind. I got him. He was right over there. | 35:56 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | So anyway. I'm satisfied. After all that tumor and everything, that's the reason I don't let nobody cut that little concern down and mow the grass. And somebody had put something around it, and the grass began to grow hot. It was sun and burn. And so I said, "Well, I'll wait a little while longer, and if I can see the man, I'll tell him to clean that stump off." Because I wanted to paint it. Make it look beautiful. | 35:56 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 36:40 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | Across that, we had that house, had that great big glass, and everything up there. Some of my daddy's stuff. And he knew he was an architect. He was an architect. So do any kind and copy. And when we did put it out there, somebody, all the furniture and stuff, I don't know what caused them, but I loved that place, for free. And when they put that thing out, when they put it out, there was all that great big mantle piece. You know what happened to it? | 36:44 |
Chris Stewart | What? | 37:42 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | One of the men that was burning the place down, he took that thing and moved it, and set it aside. I said, "Why didn't you burn that?" Didn't burn it. He burned everything else up. Burned that old house up. I hated to do that. | 37:43 |
Chris Stewart | Who burned it? The city? | 37:58 |
Rebecca Elliot Davis | It could been the city. The men were trying to be efficient and going on. And so I saw they took pains and moved it out while they were burning this house up. And— | 38:06 |
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