Luvenia Joyner interview recording, 1993 August 05
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
Chris Stewart | Tell me your name and your address so that I can get a recording level on the tape recording. | 0:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, I'm living here. | 0:07 |
Chris Stewart | What's this address? | 0:09 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | 502— | 0:11 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. And what's your full name? | 0:12 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Luvenia Joyner. | 0:14 |
Chris Stewart | Okay. Ma'am, I'd like to ask you by start by asking you if you've always lived here in James City. | 0:15 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, I moved out and come back. | 0:24 |
Chris Stewart | You did? | 0:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I stayed in New York a long time. | 0:27 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, that's right. | 0:31 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | And then I come back. | 0:31 |
Chris Stewart | Were you born in James City then? | 0:33 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 0:35 |
Chris Stewart | What part? What area? | 0:36 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | In Graysville? | 0:39 |
Chris Stewart | In Grayson? | 0:39 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Graysville, that's what it was called. It's called Graysville. | 0:39 |
Chris Stewart | Graysville. | 0:39 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | See when you cross the road there, it's Graysville. | 0:45 |
Chris Stewart | And there's a Brownsville. | 0:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | This is Brownsville. | 0:48 |
Chris Stewart | How come the neighborhoods got those names? | 0:54 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. It was before I come along. That's what I don't know. See, it used to be James City up that way. Now they got UC trailers running through underneath it, that was James City. Well, they put all the Colored people out of there. That part then, and they had to move over here. So they moved all the churches and everything over here. So that's how we got there. | 0:55 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember when it moved? | 1:23 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 1:25 |
Chris Stewart | Was that before your time? | 1:26 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I slightly remember, but not enough to know anything. | 1:28 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember the house that you grew up in? | 1:32 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 1:36 |
Chris Stewart | What it looked like? | 1:37 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Nothing but just, I knew a house put together. | 1:38 |
Chris Stewart | How many rooms did it have? | 1:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I think four or five. | 1:44 |
Chris Stewart | Did it have electricity? | 1:49 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, when I grew up they had nothing but lamps. | 1:51 |
Chris Stewart | Lamps. How many kids were there in your family? | 1:55 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I think it was 10 or 12 of us. | 2:00 |
Chris Stewart | So how'd you fit all those kids in that house? | 2:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, they live with one. Yeah, two or three of us slept in one bed, two or three in the other. And then we had a couch. Look, sit down. | 2:04 |
Chris Stewart | And some people slept on the couch? | 2:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 2:25 |
Chris Stewart | Did you know your grandparents? | 2:27 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 2:30 |
Chris Stewart | You did? Did they live nearby? | 2:31 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | One lived on the corner of Graysville there. They lived around, all us lived around in sections, right in the same section. | 2:36 |
Chris Stewart | All your family did? | 2:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 2:47 |
Chris Stewart | Did you visit your grandparents? | 2:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 2:50 |
Chris Stewart | What would you do when you visited them? | 2:51 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Eat, do something, then they'd beat me and I'd go back home. My grandparents was very good. | 2:55 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah? | 3:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | We had good grandparents. | 3:03 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. How come? What was so good about them? | 3:05 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They were small. I was small I mean, and they would always bring us when they go town shopping, bring us back a bag of candy and stuff like that. And they was good to them. And then they'd go get a bag of apples and a lot of them were speckled, but they would buy them so they could cut it off and feed us all. | 3:07 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, okay. | 3:35 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Because my mother had 10 children. | 3:38 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Did your grandparents ever tell you any stories about when they were growing up? | 3:40 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. How they worked, that's all. | 3:46 |
Chris Stewart | What would they tell you? | 3:49 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | How they worked in the field and how they walked and pick berries. They used to go around, the berries used to go on the ground. They used to call them blackberries or something, and they'd walk around and pick berries. | 3:54 |
Chris Stewart | Would they sell them or would they? | 4:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. [Indistinct 00:04:11] and sell them. Well, they made a living somewhere in the way down there for the factories and men did, and the women worked in the fields. It didn't bother them. They didn't seem to worry much as we were in now. | 4:08 |
Chris Stewart | Your grandparents? Yeah. How come they didn't worry, do you think? | 4:29 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, they figured that was, maybe that was the way they came up. I think that was the way they came up. They worked, and the parents had to work to take care of. Now I didn't know they parents. | 4:35 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 4:54 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | But I know them. | 4:55 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember what they looked like? | 4:57 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 4:59 |
Chris Stewart | What they looked like. | 5:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They was nice people. Nice looking. And it was real nice. | 5:01 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah? What kind of work did your father do? | 5:10 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My father, I told you over there, to the fertilizer factory. | 5:14 |
Chris Stewart | Worked at the fertilizer factory? | 5:16 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 5:16 |
Chris Stewart | Did he ever talk to any of his kids about his work or? | 5:19 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, he wasn't that tight. | 5:23 |
Chris Stewart | What time would he leave in the morning? | 5:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Around five or six o'clock. | 5:28 |
Chris Stewart | And then when would he be back? | 5:30 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Around four or five. You didn't have lunch time off. They all worked, didn't nobody play. | 5:31 |
Chris Stewart | So that you said that that was mainly where men worked down at the fertilizer factory? | 5:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 5:47 |
Chris Stewart | Did you have any brothers that worked down there? | 5:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't remember. I don't remember. But I know my father did. | 5:51 |
Chris Stewart | You said you worked out in the field though, and the women worked out in the field. | 6:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 6:03 |
Chris Stewart | You lived in James City, right? Where would you go to work? | 6:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Down the road. | 6:12 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember who you were working for? | 6:15 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh my God, no. There's so many farmers down there. | 6:17 |
Chris Stewart | Okay, so it was a lot of different people then. | 6:21 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. I go wait for you today. If we finish your crop today, then we go to another one. Can't remember. Mr. White was one. I know he was, don't ask me his first name, because all I know is White. | 6:24 |
Chris Stewart | Who made the arrangements to get to work? Did your mother? | 6:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. He come around there, come and ask you. If you wanted to go pick beans, whatever they wanted you to do, if you wanted to do it, they would ask you. | 6:51 |
Chris Stewart | Would your whole family go or would it just be a couple of kids? | 7:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, a couple of kids, or either my mother went or something like that. | 7:08 |
Chris Stewart | Would the kids split up and go to different farms? | 7:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. It was nice working like that I reckon. | 7:15 |
Chris Stewart | You think it was nice? | 7:20 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I reckon, I don't know. | 7:20 |
Chris Stewart | Did you like it? | 7:20 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I didn't like the work because I didn't want to work. | 7:27 |
Chris Stewart | I remember you telling me that. | 7:28 |
Chris Stewart | How come you didn't want to work? | 7:32 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, you know how lazy children is. They want to play. | 7:34 |
Chris Stewart | Did you try and get out of it? | 7:39 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, I bet not, had I would got a beating. | 7:42 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 7:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Now I would got a whooping if I had started that mess. | 7:46 |
Chris Stewart | Right. What would you do when you were working in the field? What would you do to pass the time? | 7:49 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Pass the time breaking. I didn't have nothing, do nothing but work all day. | 7:53 |
Chris Stewart | Would you talk to people? | 7:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Talk to the people in the field like that, and you ain't not talk too much because you ain't got to stick your mouth in grown people's businesses at that time. Now you can't do nothing because the children sticks the mouth in it. But then, you couldn't. | 8:02 |
Chris Stewart | In grown people's business. | 8:18 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | You didn't mess in their business. | 8:20 |
Chris Stewart | What about, did you play any, I mean, while you were working, did you play any games? | 8:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, not while we were working. | 8:27 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of farm work did you do specifically? | 8:30 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | We'd pick cotton. We would work in tobacco, and break in the corn fields. We'd work in any fields. Oh, my cousin going hungry. | 8:40 |
Chris Stewart | You said you didn't like working in the field. | 8:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I didn't, but I had to work in there. | 8:44 |
Chris Stewart | You had to do it. | 8:47 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | That sun would be hot. | 9:01 |
Chris Stewart | Right. But did you ever work, what kind of work did you do when you worked with tobacco? | 9:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Handed tobacco or either, we had to tie it on the stick. Call it looping tobacco. | 9:10 |
Chris Stewart | Looping. What would you prefer to do, working with cotton or working with tobacco? | 9:17 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, either one was, cotton was what it's called. And you put your hand in there, sometimes you stick your hand with them wood. But the tobacco was the best, so you just had to pull it off and there somebody with a wagon pushing behind you and take the tobacco. | 9:28 |
Chris Stewart | Did you ever sing any songs while you were picking tobacco picking? | 9:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, I don't know. I can't remember that. But you didn't say no to junk like they sing now. All them people sung because you was in with old people. They sung church songs. | 9:53 |
Chris Stewart | Did they? Did they ever sing any blues songs? | 10:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Blues? No. | 10:09 |
Chris Stewart | Church songs. | 10:09 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Church song. You sung any, oh, the children didn't mess around me that much because the parents always had them so they would sing church on. And when Sunday come, you had to go to church. | 10:11 |
Chris Stewart | What church did you go? | 10:28 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | [Indistinct 00:10:30] Chapel. No. Yeah, first St. Luke's. | 10:30 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah? | 10:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | And then we went to, they built St. John in New Bern, we went there for a while and then we got our church | 10:35 |
Chris Stewart | That's over on the other side of the highway, right? | 10:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Right. | 10:46 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Is that a Baptist church or an AME? | 10:46 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Baptist church. | 10:48 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember when you got baptized? | 10:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Slightly. | 10:51 |
Chris Stewart | What do you remember about it? | 10:51 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They putting a nightgown on and the man's preacher came in the water. | 10:59 |
Chris Stewart | Did you feel different after you got baptized? | 11:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. I can't remember that. | 11:02 |
Chris Stewart | Did you go to the moaning bench? | 11:10 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 11:11 |
Chris Stewart | You did? Was there a revival before? | 11:12 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yes ma'am. | 11:17 |
Chris Stewart | What was that like? | 11:18 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | It was nice because all the people would come to church and they'd sit up there and sing their different church songs. | 11:19 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 11:27 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | And pray. That's the way it was nice. | 11:33 |
Chris Stewart | What kinds of things would you do for fun? | 11:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Pull up, you know these straw [indistinct 00:11:54]? They pull up the grass and take the dog baby and plant the half, wash them and plant the half, we played like that. Children didn't play like they play now. | 11:49 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 12:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | And we plant, they have you all, would make a girl and make a boy doll, and we all had a nice time. The time we had playing, we didn't have time till after we come from work like that. | 12:10 |
Chris Stewart | When were you going to school? | 12:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, the school wasn't, when school started in September, it was right around in the neighborhood. Maybe you had a school to your house. Somebody had one to that house like that. | 12:28 |
Chris Stewart | So people have different schools and different houses. Did you go to school? | 12:46 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Little while, not much. | 12:48 |
Chris Stewart | How come you didn't go very much? | 12:51 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My mother had so many children outside that worked. I had to help her and not—my father worked down there. Well, you know he was going to buy his little wine or whatever he drink. I don't know what it was. | 12:53 |
Chris Stewart | Your father drink? | 13:17 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, he drink a little. | 13:17 |
Chris Stewart | Did your mother think that he didn't bring all of his money home? | 13:17 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | He bought it home. Except he'd take a little fuss there. | 13:24 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 13:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | He had to bring it home. He had no choice, all them children. | 13:25 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. How long did your father work at the fertilizer factory? | 13:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, for years. Oh my God, and I know the mules working to it. | 13:36 |
Chris Stewart | Really? Was he working there when you left home? Was he still working there when you left home? | 13:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, he had, yeah. Was he? My father was dead when I left home, wasn't he? | 13:49 |
Chris Stewart | Really? How did he die? | 13:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I think he had pneumonia. | 14:00 |
Chris Stewart | He did. Did your mother remarry? | 14:05 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 14:07 |
Chris Stewart | She was raising those kids then all by herself? | 14:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. So you didn't have no school time, you had work time. | 14:10 |
Chris Stewart | Did your grandparents help out at all? | 14:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | His mother did. | 14:19 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. How did she help? | 14:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, she could go out and scrap up and pick up. She'd help mama with her children and help her other children. She had a lot of them. That was wonder boys, we was sitting there, one of her grandsons. | 14:25 |
Chris Stewart | So your father died when you were still at home. So all your kids had to work, huh? | 14:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, no. Yeah. All us had to work, we didn't have no time to play. | 14:49 |
Chris Stewart | Did you get married? | 15:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 15:02 |
Chris Stewart | How'd you meet your husband? | 15:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | That's why I've been wondering. I met him in the streets somewhere. | 15:07 |
Chris Stewart | In the street somewhere? | 15:10 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, where I was working. | 15:13 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah? How long did you court? | 15:15 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, I reckon about a year. I reckon maybe now. | 15:23 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah? Where did you get married? | 15:26 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | At the courthouse. | 15:28 |
Chris Stewart | At the courthouse? | 15:32 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Dealers. | 15:33 |
Chris Stewart | Did the two of you then farm? What kind of work did you do? | 15:36 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | On the farm. | 15:36 |
Chris Stewart | Huh? | 15:39 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Still working on the farm? | 15:43 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 15:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Still farming. He didn't, he worked at the fertilizer factory. | 15:45 |
Chris Stewart | Did you stay with your mom or did you go get a house yourself? | 15:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I have a house myself. | 15:56 |
Chris Stewart | Ma'am, were you farming pretty much all your life or did you do other kind of work as well? | 16:01 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, I did housework. | 16:05 |
Chris Stewart | You did? | 16:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 16:06 |
Chris Stewart | Where did you do housework? | 16:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, New Bern. | 16:08 |
Chris Stewart | Did you do day work or did you live in work? | 16:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, day work. Say you wanted your house clean, I'd go there and clean it, like that. | 16:14 |
Chris Stewart | How did you find out about? | 16:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | About? | 16:23 |
Chris Stewart | Who wanted their house clean? | 16:26 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They would come and let you know. See, most all them older people know each other. | 16:28 |
Chris Stewart | The older Black and White people? So did you mainly work for older people? | 16:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I helped them too. Always help them. Always felt sorry for them. Some of them was old or too old to do anything, but they was mean as the devil, but. | 16:42 |
Chris Stewart | They were? | 16:54 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, ma'am. | 17:02 |
Chris Stewart | How do you mean? | 17:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They was cranky. | 17:04 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah, what would they do? | 17:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Holler at them. Make you do their work. And whatever you had to do, they'd make you do it just like your mother would. But they wouldn't hit you or nothing. But they'd score in. Then they tell you was going to tell your mother and you know was going to get a beating. They would not believe me, they'd believe them. And that's how we would, we got along pretty good. They didn't go hungry, and different one had grown up children. They would give my mother the clothes, the children clothes that they didn't want and it went like that. | 17:05 |
Chris Stewart | Where'd you do your shopping? | 17:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Old town. | 17:45 |
Chris Stewart | Where? Old town? | 17:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | New Bern. | 17:48 |
Chris Stewart | In town? | 17:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 17:51 |
Chris Stewart | What specific places would you go to? | 17:51 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, I don't know. I know one of them was Armstrong Goat. I don't know. My mother didn't move to town. | 17:55 |
Chris Stewart | What about when you were married? Where did you do your shopping? | 18:01 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, New Bern. | 18:04 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember what places you would go to then? | 18:05 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I can't even think of one them name. | 18:05 |
Chris Stewart | Were there places that you couldn't go to because you were a Black woman? | 18:14 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. They would let you go in and buy your stuff and come on out. That was one thing we could buy, were groceries or whatever you had and come on out. You didn't hang around there, but you go in and get your stuff and come on out. | 18:18 |
Chris Stewart | Were there any places in James City that were considered bad places that you shouldn't go to? | 18:37 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Bad places? | 18:42 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 18:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 18:43 |
Chris Stewart | Like maybe liquor houses, peep joy. | 18:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, I imagine they may been, but I wouldn't know. You at the same time your mother made you come in. | 18:47 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 18:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | You don't stay out like you children stay now. | 18:57 |
Chris Stewart | Did you hear about them? | 18:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, I didn't. I don't know. I see my father with some, but I never know. | 19:02 |
Chris Stewart | I talked to Ms. Gavin, who owns the store right down the street there. She told me your father owned a pool hall. | 19:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. Oh, I was grown when he got that. | 19:16 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Remember? | 19:21 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Because I married his brother. | 19:21 |
Chris Stewart | Right. Did you ever go to the pool hall? | 19:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, I didn't. | 19:28 |
Chris Stewart | No, that was the place that only men went? | 19:30 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mens went there. | 19:33 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah? | 19:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I guess womens went there. I don't know because I didn't never go there. | 19:36 |
Chris Stewart | What would you do for fun after you were married? What would you do to relax? | 19:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Sit down around the house and sew. Get my piece of material and sew something and mess around. Or either go to your house, somebody's house, like that. You sit down, talk. | 19:46 |
Chris Stewart | You'd go visit people then? | 19:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 20:00 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. When did- | 20:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I never went to them joints like that. I'm calling them joints, I shouldn't call them that, but I never went to them. | 20:03 |
Chris Stewart | Well, when would you do your visiting? What time of day would you do your visiting? | 20:12 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | When you wasn't working. On Sundays, we went to church. We'd come home, we'd go see the sick and go around like that. | 20:17 |
Chris Stewart | How many children did you have yourself ma'am? | 20:28 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Two. | 20:29 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 20:29 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Two boys. | 20:32 |
Chris Stewart | When you were cleaning people's houses, were you also working in the field? Were you also farming? | 20:40 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yep, helping people farm. Especially when the days that I didn't have no work, say you didn't want me today, you had to go somewhere. Well then, I would work on the farm. I would pick berries, stuff like that didn't bother us. I guess because we was outside, we wasn't in. | 20:46 |
Chris Stewart | Did you still not like to work? | 21:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I still like to work. | 21:10 |
Chris Stewart | Did you still not like to, remember when you told me when you were a little kid you didn't like to work? | 21:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, but I love working. I hate staying home. I'm talking here. I like working. | 21:17 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah? | 21:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I hate the idea of sitting down here. Now I can't work. | 21:25 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 21:29 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I always like to work. | 21:29 |
Chris Stewart | Did you and your husband own your house? Did you buy it or did you rent it? | 21:30 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, my house I own there. | 21:36 |
Chris Stewart | When you and your husband got married, did you own it? | 21:40 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, we rented it. We didn't have no money. You couldn't buy, didn't have no money to buy one. | 21:42 |
Chris Stewart | I mean, once you were together and making money, did you buy a house or did you? | 21:47 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | We bought the house over there? | 21:52 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Did you and your husband buy it? | 21:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 22:01 |
Chris Stewart | How long were you married to him? | 22:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh Lord. I was married to him about 20 years or more. | 22:04 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Did he die or did he? | 22:11 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | He died. | 22:12 |
Chris Stewart | How old were your kids when he died. | 22:14 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, my kids was already. | 22:20 |
Chris Stewart | Grown? | 22:21 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, my kids was dead when he died. | 22:21 |
Chris Stewart | How did your children die? | 22:23 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Service. | 22:24 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, I'm so sorry. | 22:27 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | So even he died in service. He died right here. See? Because we went New York and see the. | 22:32 |
Chris Stewart | When did you go to New York? | 22:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know how much. I don't know. | 22:43 |
Chris Stewart | Had you just gotten married? | 22:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, I got my children. Had children, had the two boys. | 22:55 |
Chris Stewart | Were the boys young when you went up there? | 22:58 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 23:00 |
Chris Stewart | How come you went up? | 23:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, everybody else was going so you try what somebody else do. It's crazy. | 23:03 |
Chris Stewart | How was New York different from here. | 23:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | A lot different, because you got more for your work. | 23:13 |
Chris Stewart | Got paid better? | 23:14 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, it was a lot different. And I had part of my family and he had part of his family was up there and it was nice. | 23:20 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of work did you do up there? | 23:30 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I did housework, clean some [indistinct 00:23:37] and do something. I get. [INTERRUPTION]. | 23:32 |
Chris Stewart | New York. What kind of work did your husband do when you got up there? | 23:40 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Factory. | 23:45 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of factory work? Different kinds? | 23:46 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Different kinds. | 23:50 |
Chris Stewart | Where did you live in New York? | 23:52 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | In Brooklyn. | 23:53 |
Chris Stewart | What was your neighborhood like? | 23:57 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Nice. It was all right. All the neighborhood was nice. | 23:59 |
Chris Stewart | Was it an all Black neighborhood? | 24:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, just mixed up. | 24:05 |
Chris Stewart | How is it different living in a mixed up neighborhood as compared to living in an all Black area down here? | 24:09 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, I don't know. It was all right. We all got along all right. There was a lot of Italians and different kind of people rest in all type. You got along all right. I can't tell you about them. We went to clubs and things. Get off them walls and get back over there, this child going drive me to drink. You'll see what's going to happen to you, and that's still beating. | 24:15 |
Chris Stewart | So ma'am, we were still talking about New York. How long did you stay in New York? | 24:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I stayed in there about 15 years. | 24:55 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, so it's quite a while. | 24:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 24:59 |
Chris Stewart | You said you lived in Brooklyn, right? | 24:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 24:59 |
Chris Stewart | Where would you do, say your marketing in that area? | 25:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Park Avenue. They had them big markets, but they had grocery stores, big grocery stores all around. | 25:13 |
Chris Stewart | Did you go to those? | 25:20 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, when I was in a hurry and didn't have time to mess around. | 25:22 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah? What about clothes? | 25:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, that was downtown. You could get them. | 25:28 |
Chris Stewart | Would you still, remember you told me that what you did for entertainment when you were here is that you visit people. Would you be visiting people? | 25:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 25:43 |
Chris Stewart | What other kinds of things would you do? | 25:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Go to church and visit people. It was nice. Some of them come down here to see me now. Some of the younger ones, the older ones don't much. | 25:51 |
Chris Stewart | How come you came back to James City then? | 26:01 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Because I was tired up there. I come back and my mother-in-law of them was. | 26:04 |
Chris Stewart | Because you were tired, you said? What were you tired of? | 26:09 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Tired of up there? | 26:13 |
Chris Stewart | What were you tired of? | 26:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. I'd rather been home. It was nice up there. I mean, it wasn't bad, rough like it is now. It was nice up there. You could go out, you could go to church or go to the malls. | 26:15 |
Chris Stewart | Was there something that happened that made you decide to come back? | 26:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-mm. | 26:37 |
Chris Stewart | Just decide to come back? | 26:40 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 26:42 |
Chris Stewart | Your husband come back? | 26:42 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, my sons had died. | 26:43 |
Chris Stewart | By then? | 26:49 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. See they got hurt. They died in army, they were army. And we come back, huh. | 26:50 |
Chris Stewart | So what did you do then when you came back here to New York, I mean to James City? | 27:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Stayed here and went to work. | 27:10 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. What kind of work did you do again? | 27:10 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Factory work at any time I could get. | 27:10 |
Chris Stewart | Did you have any of the people that you worked for doing housework, did you have any people that you particularly liked and any people that you didn't like very much? | 27:19 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I liked them all. I never had nobody I disliked. | 27:25 |
Chris Stewart | But some of them you said were grumpy. | 27:28 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, then I quit them. | 27:31 |
Chris Stewart | You did? Right. Did you know women who were doing live-in work, who were living in? | 27:36 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, they didn't have that then. | 27:41 |
Chris Stewart | Really? | 27:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Didn't have no living, everybody went home and at a certain time then they come back the next morning. | 27:46 |
Chris Stewart | What time would you start work at? | 27:57 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | You can start at eight o'clock, seven o'clock if you want. They didn't say nothing. | 27:59 |
Chris Stewart | When did you get home then? | 28:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Time that cook yourself and your children get out of school. | 28:10 |
Chris Stewart | About what time? | 28:14 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I'd say about three o'clock or four if I'm home. | 28:16 |
Chris Stewart | How would you get to the places where you worked? | 28:19 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Walked. | 28:21 |
Chris Stewart | What about if it was raining? | 28:21 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | You walked, take your umbrella and walk. You didn't have no cars, no. And the first man got a car? Yeah, everybody like to have a fit. | 28:25 |
Chris Stewart | Really? | 28:30 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 28:30 |
Chris Stewart | How come? | 28:30 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Because nobody had no cars over here. | 28:43 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember that? | 28:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 28:46 |
Chris Stewart | Who got it? | 28:46 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mr. Dunson. | 28:48 |
Chris Stewart | Dunson? | 28:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 28:59 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of car was it? | 28:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know that now, imagine it was a Ford. I don't know. | 28:59 |
Chris Stewart | What'd it look like to you? I mean, just describe what it looked like ma'am. Just when you first saw it, what did you think? | 28:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Saw the car? | 29:03 |
Chris Stewart | Saw the car. | 29:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, something to me. He lived right down the street there somewhere. He got that car and he was the only one and everybody said he was the only rich man. That's what the people said. But he wasn't, he worked just like anybody else and then he got his money, he got it. His children and all was older than my mother. | 29:09 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, they were? | 29:32 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, Sam Dunson, his name was. | 29:33 |
Chris Stewart | Sam Johnson? | 29:38 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Dunson. | 29:38 |
Chris Stewart | Dunson. | 29:38 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | And he got him that car, it was nice. Wasn't nothing but an old car. Got no new car, I don't think. | 29:42 |
Chris Stewart | Did he carry children around? Give them rides? | 29:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Are you kidding? Not that hateful man. | 29:51 |
Chris Stewart | Ooh. What was so hateful about him? | 29:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | He wasn't. He just thought he was better than anybody else. | 29:57 |
Chris Stewart | He did? | 29:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, he was because he had more money. | 30:01 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of work did he do? | 30:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. It was over old towns or some factory or something over there. | 30:06 |
Chris Stewart | But he was richer than others? | 30:12 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 30:13 |
Chris Stewart | But he lived over here. | 30:14 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Right down there by that church. | 30:18 |
Chris Stewart | Oh yeah? | 30:20 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Uh-huh. | 30:21 |
Chris Stewart | Were there other people who you knew who were like that who? | 30:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, not too many. If they did, they didn't show it. | 30:29 |
Chris Stewart | Oh, okay. | 30:31 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They didn't show it. | 30:31 |
Chris Stewart | Did you know of, when I was talking to Ms. Gavin, she told me that there were young women and young men who were dating who perhaps shouldn't have been dating, say young White men and young Black women or young Black men and young White women. Did you hear about that? | 30:37 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. I never known that and I don't think it would've last. Them White folks would have killed them. | 31:02 |
Chris Stewart | Really? | 31:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yes, they would've. | 31:10 |
Chris Stewart | Why do you think that? | 31:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Because they didn't mix together like that. Not down here now. Oh, well maybe she knowed it because she's so much younger than me. | 31:14 |
Chris Stewart | So maybe by the time she was. | 31:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They was mixing. | 31:28 |
Chris Stewart | But maybe when you were coming up. | 31:29 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | You didn't mix. Mm-mm. | 31:32 |
Chris Stewart | Was there anything going on in secret? | 31:36 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Not that I know of. But after we come from work, you didn't go out. I didn't go out. I couldn't tell you. No, you didn't fool around. The White didn't mess with the Colored, and the Colored boys didn't mess with the White. They didn't mix up like that. | 31:37 |
Chris Stewart | Did you ever hear of any women getting hurt by White men? | 31:55 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 31:58 |
Chris Stewart | Not that they, I mean that it wasn't their fault that somebody hurt them. | 32:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 32:07 |
Chris Stewart | No? | 32:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 32:09 |
Chris Stewart | When you were going to school, did any of your teachers talk to you about boys? | 32:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Just tell you be careful and don't hang out. All of them like they usually do. They was older teachers. | 32:18 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Were there any young girls who made a mistake and got pregnant? | 32:28 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 32:35 |
Chris Stewart | What would happen to them when that? | 32:36 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Most and generally the man would marry her. | 32:39 |
Chris Stewart | Really? Were there people who men didn't marry? Young girls who men didn't marry? | 32:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. I don't know. I don't remember any. | 32:50 |
Chris Stewart | What would their girlfriends, how would the girls' girlfriends react or parents in the community? | 32:54 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | All right. | 33:01 |
Chris Stewart | It was okay? | 33:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | The boy most after marry them and they had their babies and gone down the street with them. That's one thing, they didn't have no trouble. | 33:06 |
Chris Stewart | Did you remember seeing Jim Crow signs? Signs, White and Colored? Signs, like at the water fountains or in the bus? | 33:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yes, they had them. You go here and they go there, and you go up this bathroom over here and they go to this one over here, they had all them now. | 33:41 |
Chris Stewart | Did you ever know anybody who didn't follow those signs? | 33:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Everybody followed them. Especially over this way, everybody followed those signs. | 33:55 |
Chris Stewart | Did people talk about them? | 34:01 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. They just say they be glad and it be so you can go anywhere you want, huh. And that's that. Yeah. A lot of places you could go in, you couldn't go. | 34:04 |
Chris Stewart | What places couldn't you go? | 34:16 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | A lot of grocery stores and different things. You had to go around the side door, the Colored here. Yeah, it was a lot of them. | 34:20 |
Chris Stewart | What would happen to you if you didn't go up down to the side door? | 34:35 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They wouldn't attend. They wouldn't sell it to you. They'd tell you straight, you know you're not allowed in this store like that. They had signs, you would know which door to go in, which door not to go in. We had the Colored movies, you had to go over there. And you know there was the Colored churches. And when they changed it, it was different. | 34:39 |
Chris Stewart | Is there a movie theater here in James City? | 35:16 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 35:18 |
Chris Stewart | You always had to travel to New Bern? | 35:18 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Always have to, always have, and always will. Some down that way, down towards movie here. But everybody usually go to New Bern, and I guess they figured [indistinct 00:35:50]. They go over there to them same movies, all of them go. I guess they figured that so all of them for these over here and some them out for, and out that way to go to New Bern. Don't ask me, I can't figure why they figured that out. I never tried. | 35:28 |
Chris Stewart | Did you know of any men who tried to or worked as fishermen in this area to try and get? | 36:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Catch fish. | 36:11 |
Chris Stewart | Right. | 36:12 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 36:12 |
Chris Stewart | Did anybody in your family do that? | 36:15 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 36:17 |
Chris Stewart | Where would they sell the fish? | 36:18 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, towns of the fish market. | 36:20 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 36:26 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | The fish markets were bomb. And those Colored people, they had fish markets too. So you could go to either one of them and then they got, so you could go anywhere you want them buy the fish in the store. | 36:26 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. So there was a Colored fish market as well. | 36:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Huh? | 36:47 |
Chris Stewart | You said when you were coming up there was a Colored fish market? | 36:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, they had a fish market, it was on [indistinct 00:36:58]. | 36:55 |
Chris Stewart | When were you born ma'am? | 37:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Huh? | 37:02 |
Chris Stewart | When were you born? | 37:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | 1909. May the 1st. | 37:04 |
Chris Stewart | May day. Wow. So when you came back to live here in James City, what part you did you come over to this part of town then to Brownsville? | 37:09 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Come over here. | 37:25 |
Chris Stewart | By that time, how old were you about? | 37:26 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, I guess about 20 or 30. | 37:29 |
Chris Stewart | When you came back? | 37:32 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. And I've been here ever since. | 37:32 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember having any family celebrations when you were growing up? Anything where like birthdays or holidays? | 37:40 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, they didn't have them. | 37:48 |
Chris Stewart | How come? | 37:51 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. But you know them old people didn't believe in them, a lot of stuff like that. They'll tell you first they had to work too hard to get what they wanted. To get something, and they not put it on. No, they didn't have it. Now they have it, but they didn't then. Them people had to work hard to have a living. And they were not spending on no birthday party or no party. But if some children would come around, my mother would bake a cake or something or some cookies like that and give them. But they didn't have no party. People didn't have it. If they had those town, that I didn't know because I didn't hang out over there. | 37:54 |
Chris Stewart | So did you take care of your brothers and sisters? You were babysitting? | 38:46 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, I mother my brothers and sisters because it was so much younger than me. | 38:56 |
Chris Stewart | Did any of your other brothers and sisters go to school? | 39:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, all of them did doing that. No, I got one brother in New York and I got one sister in there. | 39:06 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. If you were to think about what kind of values your mother gave to you to bring to you into adulthood, what would you say those are? Values, what kinds of values? Things that were important to you. | 39:17 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Church. | 39:33 |
Chris Stewart | Church? | 39:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | That was her biggest. She believed in church. | 39:34 |
Chris Stewart | What did it mean to her? | 39:42 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | It meant a lot to her. Her religion was old, she meant that she went to church. And Saturday evenings when they go shopping, they would take some care some of us one time, and some of us another time. When we was small, they couldn't take us all. Because they had to walk and she couldn't carry them children. Thank God it's so much different now. Girls don't have no trouble. | 39:45 |
Chris Stewart | Did your parents have a buggy or a wagon? | 40:20 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Had a wagon. We had a wagon for a while and then it got out of hand, the horse died. And then we walked. Or somebody come along with their wagon and then give us a lift. | 40:24 |
Chris Stewart | Pick you up. Your mother have a garden in her house? | 40:40 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, we have a garden. | 40:46 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 40:47 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Butter bean, corn, everything we raised it right in the yard, in the garden. | 40:52 |
Chris Stewart | Did she can? | 41:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 41:01 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Do you remember canning time? | 41:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, I remember that. But don't ask me, because I didn't. | 41:05 |
Chris Stewart | Because you didn't do it? | 41:05 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 41:05 |
Chris Stewart | How come? | 41:05 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I was too lazy. | 41:12 |
Chris Stewart | Did your mother get angry with you because you were lazy? | 41:16 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, because she'd make me do something else. | 41:17 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember when you got electricity? | 41:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, I can't remember that. But it's been a long time. I can't remember when we got lights, they had to put them all over. I guess when they put them over New Bern but I don't remember. | 41:27 |
Chris Stewart | Did your lights change when you got lights? | 41:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 41:50 |
Chris Stewart | How? | 41:51 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | When we got lights, because we didn't have to mess with the lamp. That had to drag that kerosene can off and down the street behind [indistinct 00:41:58] and they didn't have to. | 41:51 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 42:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | But that's been a good long ago. | 42:03 |
Chris Stewart | Was the house brighter? | 42:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Brighter, yes. | 42:05 |
Chris Stewart | How was that? | 42:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. The electric was better. | 42:07 |
Chris Stewart | What other kinds of things did you have that you didn't have before when you didn't have lights? | 42:12 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | [Indistinct 00:42:20] and lamps and there wasn't nothing else we had. | 42:20 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 42:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | And that's funny. They had them in the churches and everything, and it didn't bother them. | 42:25 |
Chris Stewart | Who made the decisions in your house? | 42:36 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Huh? | 42:38 |
Chris Stewart | About kids, who made decisions in your house about disciplining the kids? | 42:39 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My mother. | 42:42 |
Chris Stewart | How would she do it? | 42:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Spank us. | 42:46 |
Chris Stewart | Were there other people in your neighborhood who could discipline you? | 42:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. You didn't walk on them, you wasn't like get you, look how it's raining. You didn't be fresh with, like these children is now. Now a kid come in here, garbage truck. A kid come in here, they'll sass you out or come out there, you say something to me that, you couldn't do that. | 42:54 |
Chris Stewart | What would happen to you? | 43:14 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | You would spank them if I didn't. If I didn't spank my kid, you would. People made the children mind then. They ain't like the children is now. | 43:16 |
Chris Stewart | Was there somebody in your neighborhood when you were growing up besides your mom and dad, who was really special to you? Who you spent a lot of time with? | 43:30 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, my aunt, my grandmother. They all lived together. | 43:38 |
Chris Stewart | What was so special about them? | 43:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They was nicer. They'd cook cakes, they always cooking and then with potato pies and stuff like that. That's the garbage truck. Gone on back, don't be so nosy. | 43:47 |
Speaker 1 | It's rain. | 43:58 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | She know it. | 44:01 |
Speaker 1 | Yeah, it is rain. | 44:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I say she know it. And they would always have something for children when you come around. But now you didn't go to everybody's house. | 44:05 |
Chris Stewart | Which houses did you choose to go to? | 44:17 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, the one that's nice. | 44:19 |
Chris Stewart | So you knew which ones were nice? | 44:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, how they treat you. | 44:24 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah, which were the people in your neighborhood that you didn't go to? | 44:27 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh Lord, a lot of them. I don't know. You can't go out now Peter. | 44:31 |
Speaker 2 | I know. | 44:39 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | A lot of them be. | 44:42 |
Chris Stewart | A lot of them? | 44:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 44:44 |
Chris Stewart | But you really liked your aunt and your grandma? | 44:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 44:52 |
Chris Stewart | Did they live close by? | 44:52 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | All us, it was a family together rather around. | 44:52 |
Chris Stewart | Were there times where your whole family would go over to your grandparents' house to do something? Maybe Sunday afternoon? I was asking you about going over to your parents' house, your grandparents' house, Sunday afternoon. Would you do that? | 44:52 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 45:17 |
Chris Stewart | What would you do when you went over? | 45:17 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Sat down, eat, talk. Y'all go in the room. Get out of here. If I have a time with the children. | 45:17 |
Chris Stewart | I see that. So you would go over to your grandparents' house on Sunday afternoon? | 45:17 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | And they'd go every day to my grandparents' house. | 45:19 |
Chris Stewart | Would? | 45:23 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Because then us, I lived over there and they lived over here. | 45:25 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Would you go there because your parents were working? | 45:31 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-mm. I don't know what we did when we were small. But your parents could tell you stay home, then you stayed home. | 45:34 |
Chris Stewart | Right. Do you remember reading about or having any people that you really looked up. | 45:46 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Nobody down here [indistinct 00:00:04]. No. Nobody my age, there wasn't no radios around. | 0:00 |
Chris Stewart | What about newspapers? Where'd you get your news? | 0:16 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | If they [indistinct 00:00:21] time, you heard somebody say something happened until '50, '51. That's the way they got it. | 0:21 |
Chris Stewart | I see. So you'd hear from other people. | 0:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. Then we were hear around. They would tell one and one would tell the other, and they didn't have all this stuff like they got now when I come up. They wasn't even no newspaper, I don't think. | 0:30 |
Chris Stewart | Really? Did you go to the beauty shop when you were a teenager? | 0:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. There wasn't no beauty shop. You did whatever you did to your hair yourself. You do whatever you do. You do it to yourself. | 0:51 |
Chris Stewart | You do it yourself. | 1:01 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Look, I was born in 1909, that's a long ways back. Whatever you did, you'd get your pan of water. We didn't have no sinks, and farther, we had pumps. Pump you some water and heat it if you wanted it with the wood stove. Wash your hair and go on. You washed it too. They didn't have it like they got it now. | 1:02 |
Chris Stewart | They didn't have it, huh? What about barbershops? Were there barbershops in town? | 1:33 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. One barber shop [indistinct 00:01:41] the one barber shop [indistinct 00:01:43]. My husband cut hair. He would cut different ones hair and different ones cut the next one. That's the way they did. They didn't have all that. | 1:38 |
Chris Stewart | I see. | 1:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | And a lot of the men's wives cut the hair. | 1:57 |
Chris Stewart | Oh I see. | 2:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They didn't have all that, and I couldn't. | 2:03 |
Chris Stewart | At what point in your life did people stop treating you like a child? | 2:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My people? | 2:11 |
Chris Stewart | Yes. | 2:12 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Never, til they died. What they said I had to do what they—never, I always listened to them. | 2:12 |
Chris Stewart | What about other people besides your people? | 2:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I listened, especially if they was older than me. You better listen. They'd beat you. | 2:28 |
Chris Stewart | Did your parents teach you how to act around adults? | 2:35 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Around grown people? | 2:37 |
Chris Stewart | Around grown people. | 2:39 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. They tell you respect them. They're older than you. They make you do that. If you didn't, you would get a beating, and furthermore, them older people would beat you if you didn't respect them. | 2:41 |
Chris Stewart | Was there a difference between the way you were supposed to act around White adults and Black adults? | 2:54 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, ma'am. You had to respect everybody. When I come along, you had to respect everybody. Everybody that was older, you respected them. | 2:59 |
Chris Stewart | What about children? Did you ever play with White children? | 3:11 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, many of them. | 3:14 |
Chris Stewart | People living around this area? | 3:19 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Around this area. I was up that way. They was around there. I've been on the farms. People had children, you got them, play with them, tend the them, change their diapers. Do anything, they wouldn't mind. | 3:21 |
Chris Stewart | Was there a point in your life when you had to stop playing with White children? | 3:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, I never remember. I don't know. Yeah, I guess it was, but I don't remember that. I know when we'd be in the field, they'd be on one side and we'd be on the other side. | 3:46 |
Chris Stewart | Were they working? | 4:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. When they get ready. | 4:02 |
Chris Stewart | What did you think about them not working you're having to work? | 4:09 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Thank God. Say why can't they work? But then you think they had the money and we didn't. So you had to wait and get the money. | 4:14 |
Chris Stewart | Why did they have the money? | 4:23 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They parents had money. How would we be working for their parents? That's how you [indistinct 00:04:34]. But you got a long, thank God. | 4:26 |
Chris Stewart | So what school did you go to, ma'am? | 4:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I tell you, there wasn't no special school, so just a man here teach, a man there, a woman there teach you what you could learn. | 4:47 |
Chris Stewart | Well, did you have a favorite teacher during the time you were going to school? Did you like school? | 4:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I liked it, but I didn't go enough to know, because you had a chance to sit down and wouldn't have to wait. | 5:01 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember anything, any kind of tragedy or big event that happened here in James City? Like a flood or a bad accident or something that happened while you were— | 5:14 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | We had high tide but no floods, and I remember one time we had a windstorm. I don't remember nothing much about that. It wasn't bad with us. | 5:26 |
Chris Stewart | Nothing like some bad thing happened where a fire of some sort or something. | 5:42 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, we had fires. | 5:47 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember the big New Bern fire? | 5:49 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 5:51 |
Chris Stewart | What do you remember about that? | 5:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. | 5:54 |
Chris Stewart | Did people from James City go over to New Bern to try and help fight? | 5:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Everybody went over there that could. Everybody mixed it, when that fire was there, everybody was mixing. | 6:09 |
Chris Stewart | What do you mean mixing? | 6:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | The White and the Colored. | 6:16 |
Chris Stewart | Mixing to try and fight the fire or— | 6:18 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 6:20 |
Chris Stewart | You mean in general? | 6:21 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They was mixing in general like they do now, not quite as bad as they do. | 6:22 |
Chris Stewart | So by that time, you said that they were— | 6:27 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | More friendly, let's say, I was more friendly than you, and you was more friendly to me. | 6:35 |
Chris Stewart | But not when you were young. | 6:38 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 6:39 |
Chris Stewart | Did your father help fight the fire? | 6:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, my father was dead. | 6:47 |
Chris Stewart | Dead by then. What about any relatives? Did You have any relatives? | 6:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, they're old men. Everybody went. They had to walk, but you ought to see them running across that bridge. They tried to help out. | 6:53 |
Chris Stewart | How did they try to help out? What did they— | 7:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Put water, most of them carry water. Try to put it out. | 7:06 |
Chris Stewart | What happened to the people who lost their homes and businesses? | 7:12 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, people help them the best they could, give what they could. | 7:18 |
Chris Stewart | Where did they live? | 7:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. That I couldn't tell you, because see, we wasn't allowed to go over there. No way. They wasn't allow to [indistinct 00:07:34] store. Your parents didn't allow you to go. | 7:27 |
Chris Stewart | Your parents didn't allow it. Was that both before and after the fire you couldn't go? | 7:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Go when they tell you. We didn't run the street like these children do. | 7:45 |
Chris Stewart | So how did you hear about the fire? | 7:55 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Somebody working over there come over and told it, and B, as that fire goes over there, you can stand over there and look at it fine. | 7:59 |
Chris Stewart | Really? Wow. | 8:10 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | The children didn't run the street like the children run now. | 8:15 |
Chris Stewart | When you got sick, where did you get help? | 8:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Had to get to your doctor. | 8:28 |
Chris Stewart | Who were the doctors? | 8:31 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, the Dr. Mann, Dr. Fisher and oh, the Silver doctors. I can't think. | 8:33 |
Chris Stewart | White or Black doctors? | 8:42 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They was Black, and we go to the basement of St. Luke. You know where that is, huh? Where we could go there in the basement there. They would wait on. | 8:48 |
Chris Stewart | What was it like down there in the basement? | 8:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I couldn't tell you. I never went. | 9:01 |
Chris Stewart | You never went? | 9:05 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-mm. | 9:05 |
Chris Stewart | Did you have your children at home or in the basement of St. Luke's? | 9:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, we had midwives would come to the house. | 9:11 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember when your children were born? | 9:16 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I'm trying to think now, I don't know. | 9:19 |
Chris Stewart | Was it a hard delivery or an easy delivery? | 9:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | It must have been an easy delivery, because the people would be right there to your bed. Your mother be there or whoever was there. | 9:26 |
Chris Stewart | So you called a midwife? | 9:33 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 9:33 |
Chris Stewart | How many midwives were in the area? | 9:37 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, about seven, eight. | 9:39 |
Chris Stewart | Really? Why did you choose this midwife? | 9:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Because she's my cousin. | 9:47 |
Chris Stewart | This one was your cousin? I see, all in the family, huh? | 9:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-mm, and she was right next to us, and then you go to the one near area. | 9:56 |
Chris Stewart | Were there other kinds of services that midwives provided besides helping to birth babies? | 10:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. If somebody would get sick, come to the hospital, they'd take care of them, help them. | 10:18 |
Chris Stewart | What kinds of things would they do for them? | 10:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, I don't know. You wasn't allowed to go in grown people's rooms, but they would wait on them if they needed to give them a bath and do that. | 10:26 |
Chris Stewart | Was there anybody in your neighborhood or after you were grown, was there anybody that you knew who used herbs or teas or roots to help? | 10:38 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 10:53 |
Chris Stewart | To help make people better? | 10:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. I hear them talk about it. Get out of here. Go home. Go out, go, all right. I'm going to throws this water on you. Okay, baby. See, you, B. | 10:55 |
Chris Stewart | You heard about it, you said? | 11:06 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 11:07 |
Chris Stewart | What did you hear? | 11:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | About what? | 11:10 |
Chris Stewart | Home remedies, people who had home remedies to help. | 11:11 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, I heard of them. | 11:15 |
Chris Stewart | What did you hear? | 11:15 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | The such and such a one give somebody some medicine that'll help them, like that, and go there and will rub them and bathe them, like that. | 11:24 |
Chris Stewart | Do you hear many people who worked roots? | 11:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, I never heard of that until here they told, after I was growing up. | 11:36 |
Chris Stewart | When you were grown, what did you hear? | 11:42 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | People say, "Such and such was messing with them roots." I don't know which was in drinking, or what. | 11:45 |
Chris Stewart | Was it a bad thing to mess with roots? | 11:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. | 11:54 |
Chris Stewart | You sound like it was. | 11:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | It sounds like it was, because I used to hear my mother say, "They should all be ashamed instead of messing with them old roots." | 12:00 |
Chris Stewart | I see. | 12:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Like that. That's what they got. But I don't know nothing about no roots. They didn't tell you nothing. People who brought the children up, you didn't know nothing. | 12:06 |
Chris Stewart | What about when you got older though? When you became an adult? When you were grown? | 12:20 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | When I was grown, then I got married. | 12:25 |
Chris Stewart | So what did you think about that kind of stuff then? | 12:27 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | You didn't hear it much. | 12:33 |
Chris Stewart | You didn't. What would you do for your children when they got sick? | 12:36 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Take them to the doctor. | 12:39 |
Chris Stewart | Where was the doctor located? | 12:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, near, Dr. Mann over near me. Take them to him or call him. | 12:46 |
Chris Stewart | Would they come out? | 12:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. | 12:51 |
Chris Stewart | Would there be anybody else besides the doctor who would be able to help you? | 12:52 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They used to have the midwives. | 12:56 |
Chris Stewart | What would they do? | 12:59 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Miss, I couldn't tell you. Try to beat them down to get rid of their fever with ice and water. | 13:01 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember, did you ever travel in North Carolina? Go from here to maybe Washington, North Carolina— | 13:17 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, we went on excursions. | 13:28 |
Chris Stewart | What would you do on those? | 13:32 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Hmm? | 13:33 |
Chris Stewart | What would you do on those? | 13:35 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, sometimes it'd be church. Sometimes we'd go to the beach or wherever, like that. | 13:38 |
Chris Stewart | Atlantic Beach? Which beach would you go to? | 13:43 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Wherever the bus, all them went. You didn't go unless you went on the bus out. | 13:49 |
Chris Stewart | Somebody told me that Atlantic Beach was a big beach to go to. It's about 45 minutes from here. | 13:52 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Uh-huh. | 13:59 |
Chris Stewart | Did you remember traveling in any segregated buses or segregated trains? | 14:05 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yes, I have. You had to ride to the back, and they would be to the front. I have everything. | 14:10 |
Chris Stewart | What was that like? | 14:16 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | It was all right because we was used to it. | 14:18 |
Chris Stewart | How would you prepare for making a trip like that? | 14:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Just take whatever you had do it. You had to go to the back and you knowed that but you was raised up with it. Then you go right on there. | 14:29 |
Chris Stewart | Did you ever see anybody who didn't go to the back? | 14:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. Everybody listened to it. The ones went to the front. They just walked straight through and that's all. When you know a thing is that way, you go ahead and do it. | 14:43 |
Chris Stewart | What about places to eat when you were traveling? | 15:02 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, they had places where there's Colored and one was— | 15:08 |
Chris Stewart | How would you find out where the Colored one was? | 15:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh, you'd see a sign or see something in the window. | 15:15 |
Chris Stewart | Ma'am, can you think of anything that I haven't asked you that'd you— | 15:23 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. I've been thinking, I can't, so they go to the beach. | 15:25 |
Chris Stewart | What would you do at the beach when you went? | 15:36 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Nothing. They had a part for the Colored in the parking lots. | 15:38 |
Chris Stewart | What would you do there? | 15:42 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Swim, and you could walk around and window shop. That was good. That's been so many years. I can't even think. | 15:44 |
Chris Stewart | I was hoping to get down to Atlantic Beach maybe sometime soon. | 16:01 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I ain't been to that. When I was little, you didn't go to Atlantic Beach. | 16:08 |
Speaker 1 | You got it on. | 16:22 |
Chris Stewart | Huh? | 16:22 |
Speaker 1 | It's— | 16:22 |
Chris Stewart | It's a ways away. | 16:22 |
Speaker 1 | For a dollar. | 16:22 |
Chris Stewart | A dollar? | 16:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | A dollar? [INTERRUPTION]. | 16:22 |
Chris Stewart | Can you give me your full name? | 16:22 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My full name? | 16:24 |
Chris Stewart | Uh-huh. | 16:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Luvenia Joyner. | 16:27 |
Chris Stewart | Is it L-O-U- | 16:28 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | L-U-V-E-N-I-A. | 16:29 |
Chris Stewart | What's your maiden name? | 16:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Joyner. | 16:35 |
Chris Stewart | Your maiden name? | 16:37 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Before our marriage, Forskey, F-O-R-S-K-E-Y. | 16:42 |
Chris Stewart | What's your telephone number, ma'am? | 16:54 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Here? I don't know. What's the phone? | 16:57 |
Chris Stewart | And you were born here in James City? | 17:00 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 17:02 |
Speaker 1 | I'm talking about, I'm a wow. | 17:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Shut-up. | 17:09 |
Chris Stewart | What was your husband's name? | 17:10 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Ben Joyner. Know where you went to see Ann at? | 17:12 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. | 17:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | That was her father's brother. | 17:24 |
Chris Stewart | That's Ann's—do you know his birthdate? | 17:24 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 17:25 |
Chris Stewart | When did he die? | 17:35 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Oh gee. | 17:35 |
Chris Stewart | Do you know how old he was when he died? | 17:35 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, he was about 60. | 17:35 |
Chris Stewart | That's good. Was he born here in James City too? | 17:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. People were born, they were born, I guess he was. | 17:52 |
Chris Stewart | What was your mom's name, your mother's name? | 17:54 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Fanny Forskey. | 17:55 |
Chris Stewart | Do you know what her maiden name was? | 17:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Hamm. | 18:02 |
Chris Stewart | Hamm? | 18:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, Fanny Hamm. That's what they was named. That's what her name was. | 18:06 |
Chris Stewart | Was she born here in James City too? | 18:08 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Down the road further. They call it Thurmond. | 18:16 |
Chris Stewart | Call it? | 18:21 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | That's Thurmond down that way. | 18:24 |
Chris Stewart | Thurmond town? | 18:25 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | The name was just Thurmond. | 18:27 |
Chris Stewart | Thurmonds. | 18:27 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | But her name was—she was up here. | 18:27 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. What about your father's name? | 18:35 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Manuel Forskey. | 18:38 |
Chris Stewart | Was he born here? | 18:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Who? | 18:56 |
Chris Stewart | Your father? | 18:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yes. | 18:57 |
Chris Stewart | Do you remember the names of your brothers and sisters? | 19:04 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My brother and sister, yeah, Mary. | 19:07 |
Chris Stewart | Huh? | 19:11 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mary Forskey, Canella, that's my brother. | 19:11 |
Chris Stewart | Canella? | 19:11 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah. One named Dan and there was five of us girls. Now, mine, Margie, that's real, I mean. How many I give you? | 19:25 |
Chris Stewart | There's five, including you so far. | 19:51 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | That's all of them. My sister, Mary, Margie, Sydney, and that's all. That was all of them. | 20:00 |
Chris Stewart | Were you the oldest or- | 20:15 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No, my brother—oh, the other ones was dead. My brother Manuel was the oldest. | 20:25 |
Chris Stewart | Do you know the names of the other ones that aren't alive still? | 20:40 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They dead? | 20:43 |
Chris Stewart | Yeah. Manuel? | 20:44 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Did I give you Canella? | 20:47 |
Chris Stewart | You gave me Canella. | 20:48 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | William. | 20:52 |
Chris Stewart | William. | 20:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Dan, Canella. I gave it Dan, didn't I? Dan, Canella, William, did I give you Manuel? | 20:59 |
Chris Stewart | Any more girls? | 21:10 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Besides me? | 21:16 |
Chris Stewart | And Mary and Margie. | 21:18 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mary, Margie, Sydney, Gladys, that's all of them, I think so. | 21:24 |
Chris Stewart | So where were you? Were you a middle child or where were you in the birth order? | 21:47 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My brother Manuel was the oldest, and I think, I don't know. I don't know which one. I'm not the oldest. | 21:51 |
Chris Stewart | What about your children's names? | 22:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My children? One was named Frank. | 22:03 |
Chris Stewart | Was he born here in James City? | 22:18 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | That's what I'm thinking, yeah. Where was he? I don't know. We stayed away so long. I don't know. | 22:22 |
Chris Stewart | When was he born? | 22:31 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I don't know. | 22:37 |
Chris Stewart | What about your other son? | 22:38 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Frank, I don't know. What was his name? Can't think of. They both died since service [indistinct 00:23:02]. I don't know. I can't think no more. I just can't think of him. | 22:39 |
Chris Stewart | So what's your— | 23:32 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | My other son was Benny. | 23:33 |
Chris Stewart | Good job. | 23:33 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I had to think. | 23:39 |
Chris Stewart | I knew you could come up with it. | 23:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | His name was Benny. Honey, I had to think. | 23:42 |
Chris Stewart | I believe it. | 23:45 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Because there's so many names there we called him. | 23:45 |
Chris Stewart | I know. | 23:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | They two are dead. | 24:00 |
Chris Stewart | Now, what church do you belong to? | 24:05 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Pilgrim Chapel. | 24:07 |
Chris Stewart | And this is a Free Will Baptist or just a Baptist? | 24:16 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Just a Baptist. Free Will Baptists is over in New Bern. | 24:19 |
Chris Stewart | Have you ever belonged to any organizations, community or social clubs or? | 24:34 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Did I belong to? No. | 24:40 |
Chris Stewart | Have you ever? | 24:41 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | The Roots, that was a, organization. | 24:46 |
Chris Stewart | The Roots? | 24:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 24:51 |
Chris Stewart | What did you do in that club? | 24:53 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Like a lodge. | 24:58 |
Chris Stewart | Like a lodge. Was it secret lodge? | 24:58 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | No. | 25:00 |
Chris Stewart | What kind of things would you do there? | 25:03 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Nothing but sit down and talk. | 25:05 |
Chris Stewart | Really? How come you decided to join? | 25:07 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Well, there wasn't no where else to go sometimes. | 25:12 |
Chris Stewart | What was the tents? Did you ever get involved with the tents? What other groups? | 25:18 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | I can't think of any other ones. I'm thinking now. | 25:25 |
Chris Stewart | What about church groups? Were there any church groups? | 25:29 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, I was one of the deacon there Sunday, and I was one of the [indistinct 00:25:39] in the church. | 25:32 |
Chris Stewart | Do you have any hobbies or things that you like to do? | 25:50 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yes, sew. | 25:53 |
Chris Stewart | You're a sewer, huh? You make clothes for friends or do you make knickknacks, things like— | 25:56 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Not now, I don't. I can't see. | 26:03 |
Chris Stewart | Did you use to? | 26:07 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Uh-huh. | 26:07 |
Chris Stewart | You used to do that? | 26:10 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Uh-huh. | 26:11 |
Chris Stewart | Did you sew for your kids? | 26:13 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Yeah, I made all my kids' clothes. | 26:14 |
Chris Stewart | Did you? | 26:14 |
Luvenia Forskey Joyner | Mm-hmm. | 26:17 |
Item Info
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