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Memories of Oyster Creek

By James W. Salter (Born January 22, 1888)

            I am thinking back over my life of 85 years, to when I was a kid living up to the head of Oyster Creek, where I was born January 22, 1888.  I was born in the house of my grandmother, Sarah (known to everyone as aunt Sallie Salter).

            I want to tell you about my grandmother’s early life as it was told to me by an old man living at Davis Shore, who passed away many years ago.  As he told me about how he lived, it was very hard times.  He told me about one Christmas when one of his Dad’s old friends ate dinner at their house.  They gave him the best that they had–salt fish and potatoes.  To begin with, my grandmother lived up the head of Nelson’s Bay, just across Highway 70, from where John Weston Smith’s fish factory is located.  She lived on a 50-acre tract of land, owned by her Dad.  It was very good farming land and no doubt she knew all about what “work” was.

            Her brother, Tom Lewis, gave her 50 acres of land at the head of Oyster Creek for a wedding present when she married James Salter, and they went there, built a house and started a new life together.  They cleared a little farm, about 20 acres, right in the side of a heavy gum swamp.  In those days it was all hard work, but it is no secret what God can do for the ones that love him.

            My grandmother raised a large family.  The children were John, George, James Wallace, Isaiah Stanley, Robert, Kilby and one girl named Mittie.  The oldest son, John and his wife Pherbie didn’t have any children.  George and his wife, Jimmie, had five girls; Mary, Sallie, Hettie, Georgie and Maggie.  Hettie was born May 28, 1882, died September 21, 1959.  Georgie was born June 12, 1886 and died October 25, 1964.  Maggie was born February 6, 1889 and died September 18, 1952.

            The third son, James Wallace Salter, and his wife Matilda Ann had three children; Ernest Salter, born March 19, 1883, died July 6, 1974, Nora Salter, who was born May 13, 1884 and died December 12, 1954 and married a Davis, Daisy Salter, born May 12, 1893, and married a Willis.

            Isaiah Stanley Salter and wife Eliza Salter (my parents), Isaiah was born June 22, 1850 and died June 4, 1914.  Eliza was born August 13, 1860 and died December 18, 1945. They had three children:

             1.  James (Jim) Salter, born January 22, 1888.

            2.  William Thomas (Tommy) Salter, born March 31, 1885, died June 23, 1966.

            3.  Tobe Salter, born May 31, 1890 and died July 17, 1975.

            There was a man by the name of Hawkins, that stayed up the Oyster Creek for a long time.  He was a soldier, stationed at Fort Macon, and when the Yankees were shelling the fort a short distance up the beach, Hawkins ran away.  He had no home, but stayed in the swamp during the daytime, and would come out at night.  He dug a ditch in the swamp about one-half mile long, and it is still called “Hawkins Ditch” today.  When he left from Oyster Creek, no one knows where he went.

            I was only 15 years old when my grandmother died, but I still remember how hard she worked.  She had a lot of bees to tend, and she always smoked her clay pipe when she worked with the bees.  She could tell when the bees were going to swarm, because they would come out of the hive and hang to the bunch.  Sometimes, for a day or so, they would fill the air when they were swarming.  Old Mama (that’s what I called my grandmother), would come out smoking her pipe, and she would take a fork and beat a tune of some kind, on a tin pan.  I never knew what she played, but she would bring the bees down, and they would pitch on a bush right where she wanted them.  She would spread a cloth where she wanted the hive to be, then shake the bees off the cloth and they would go right into the hive.  Never a bee would sting her.

            When Papa killed the hogs in the fall of the year, Old Mama would salt the meat, smoke the hams and the shoulders.  Back in those days, up to Oyster Creek was a good place to live.  When the weather turned cold in the fall of the year, a big fire was built in the fireplace.  After supper, when the day’s work was done, we would gather around the fireplace (the kitchen was

about 30 feet from the main house).  The cotton was put on the floor in front of the fireplace, and when it got warm, the seed were easier to pick out.  After the seeds were picked, the cotton was carded into rolls.  The wool was carded the same way.  I reckon there are a lot of people that never saw a pair of hand cards.  I have got my mother’s but I never did know what became of Old Mama’s.

            All of the ditches emptied into one ditch that went to the “run.”  In the fall of the year, a lot of bears and coons would get into the ditch and come on down to the run.  Old Mama would set a net across the ditch to stop the ones that came down at night.  We had one big night a year which was June 12, honey-taking time.  The people would come from Hunting Quarter, Atlantic, Wit (Sea Level), and Stacy (Piney Point).  They came to get hives of honey.  Old Mama would sell of all of the old hives that she wanted to.

            Back in those days, farming was done the hard way, for corn and cotton was planted by hand, and it was all work and no play.  After the crops were all harvested in the fall, it was back to carding, spinning, weaving cloth, and repairing the fence around the farm.

            It was a Salter town, Aunt Mittie married a sea captain (William Bell) and they went to

Harkers Island, N.C. his home to live.  They had two girls, Dora and Claudia.  Captain Bell died when the two girls were very small, and Aunt Mittie moved back to her home at the head of Oyster Creek.  Both girls died very young, so Aunt Mittie had her husband’s body moved from Harkers Island, and buried at Davis Shore with the two girls.  Uncle Robert was drowned at sea and Uncle Kilby died at home.  Neither of them married.

            Now to get back to my grandmother Sallie. My grandfather died, and Sallie was left with seven children to raise.  Some of them could help a little with the work.  Shortly after grandfather died, a waterspout destroyed my grandmother’s house, and she built another one.  On her little farm, she raised corn and cotton.  She had a lot of fruit trees, especially apple trees and she sold a lot of the apples.  She also had honey bees that she could handle, a lot of cattle, cows, horses, sheep, hogs, and chickens.  The sheep were raised to get wool to make clothes for her family.  She had a loom for weaving cloth, and did the weaving herself.  She and her family picked the seed out of the cotton, carded it into rolls, spun it on a spinning wheel into thread, and wove it into cloth to make clothes for her family.

            I think she was a grand old lady.  She was loved by all who knew her, for she was always helping someone.  She had a grist mill, and ground corn for herself and for other people too, for she was very helpful.  She had a two-masted boat, which she used to take her cotton to New Bern, NC, the nearest market.  Her boat was named “Sidney,” but someone didn’t like that name, so she changed it to the “Sow-Bug.”  My grandmother was born in 1805, and died in 1903, at the age of 98 years.

            When my uncles grew up and started out on their own, Uncle John built his house right across the run.  He had about 10 acres, and bought the Gideon Smith farm.  Uncle Jim Wallace Salter had a farm joining my grandmother’s farm.  Uncle George Salter built his house on the farm next to Uncle Jim Wallace.  Millie Davis had her home and farm next to Uncle George.  As I remember, they were all life-long friends.

            I will try to name the families that lived up the Oyster Creek, that is, besides the Salters.  There was Millie Davis, one family of fishers, one family of Willis, one family of Brinson, and two colored families.  There was a little schoolhouse, and Miss Nettie Davis was the teacher.  Later she became Alva Davis’s wife.  Nettie Davis was born at Davis, NC, on August 29, 1871, and died at Sea Level Hospital, Sea Level, NC on April 15, 1959.

            Did you ever see a “worn fence?”  To build the fence, you don’t use fence posts.  It is five rails high, staked and ridered, and it was called a good fence.  We split the rails for the fence, and Papa would pick out the pine trees that would split good.  One day, I was helping him split, and I got tired and thought of what I could do that he would send me to the house, so I went to splitting just outside of the crack.  He told me to hit in the crack, but the next lick it was just outside of the crack again.  Papa didn’t say a word, just left his axe sticking in the log and broke a switch.  I knew then that I had made a big mistake.

The Murphy Home 

            Proctor Davis (a colored man), worked for Old Mama for a long time.  He lived in a rush camp on Quinine Point, and if you don’t know where that is, I will tell you.  It is the northwest point of the ridge on the north of Davis Island.  Old Mama helped him to get five acres of land near our place, and he moved there and built another rush camp, and lived in it for a long time.

            One Christmas Eve night, during a snow storm, his rush camp burned flat to the ground.  The Mozells family moved to Morehead city, so Proctor got their home.  The men folks on Davis Shore helped to move the house on Proctor’s land.  That was his first and last home on this earth, but I believe he went to a better home.  Proctor had a large family.  He called his wife “Myrtle Bird”.  They had three sons; Barney, Bill and Eli, and five girls; May, Lucy, Kill, Penny and Bettie.  They were colored people, but very honest and nice people.

            After a long time, the Salters started moving down to Davis Shore.  Uncle George Salter moved first, then Uncle Jim Wallace Salter, and then Uncle John Salter.  There was just our family and two colored families left.  It was a little dull, but we boys would ride the horses when we weren’t working.  That was a good pastime.  After a while, Mama’s brother Captain Jim Salter, from Portsmouth Island, bought Uncle John’s place and moved his family to Oyster Creek.  Jim Salter and his wife Malissa, had two sons.  James (Jim) Salter, born August 11, 1855, died October 17, 1917 , and wife Malissa Salter born May 15, 1857 and died December 13, 1937.  The two sons born into this union were:

                        1.  Herbert Salter, born September 18, 1883 and died March 25, 1937.

                        2.  James (Jimmy) Salter, born July 2, 1886, died July 8, 1941.

                        3.  Eva Salter (adopted), born May 1, 1887, died March 14, 1947.

            Mr. Warren Gilgo, from Portsmouth Island, and his wife Sophronia, had two girls of their own, and they raised another girl.  Mr. James Warren Gilgo was born November 27, 1866 and died December 7, 1953.  His wife Sophronia Gilgo was born July 13, 1862 and died August 26, 1942.  Their children were:

                        1.  Goldie Gilgo, born June 4, 1889, died September 18, 1972.

                        2.  Ruby Gilgo, born April 1, 1894, died January 25, 1937.

                        2.  Matilda Salter (adopted sister of Eva).

                        A family of Candy, moved up the Oyster Creek, and they had four girls, but after a few years, they moved back to Beaufort County.

             When Uncle Jim Salter and the Gilgo’s all moved to Davis Shore, and the colored people moved away, it was very lonely.  Papa and Mama didn’t want to give up the home place, so we stayed on for a long time, just our one family.  In 1905, I bought a piece of land down on Davis shore, and built a home for Papa, Mama, and myself.  Brother Tommie was married and lived in a home close by.  There were Salters living on both sides of me now, five families in a row.  Some of the Salters moved to other communities, but we seem to hang together.  The best I can remember, there are only four people living now in 1974, that were born up the Oyster Creek , and they are Ernest Salter, his sister Daisy Salter Willis, Kilby Salter, my brother and myself.

            Getting back to the old days, when Old Mama was active, she was always going around the place to see what was going on.  She knew how to live off the land, and farming was her life and she knew how to do it.  They didn’t have much money in those days, in fact they didn’t have any.  She looked to the Lord for the harvest.  About all they had to buy was coffee.  They bought the green coffee beans, parched them, and ground them in a little hand mill.  It was after I was born before they bought flour–196 pounds in a barrel, for $3.00.  We had lightening bread on Sunday morning, with stiff cow’s cream, smoked ham and brown gravy.  Most of the time it was corn bread with cracklins in it.

            After Old Mama died, things didn’t seem like they did before.  As far back as I can remember, there was never a cuss word spoken in her house.  There weren’t too many changes in Old Mama’s day, but I have seen a lot of changes in my lifetime.

            We gave up the place to the bears after Old Mama and Papa left us.  Up the creek, in the winter time when it got cold, the fish went into a deep hole.  When anyone wanted fresh fish, they would take the net, and haul the deep hole right at the old landing place.  They would catch all the fish they wanted, and turn the rest loose.  There were always plenty of oysters, too, as well as clams, and scallops.  It was really a good place to live.

            Old Mama worked hard when she was a young woman, and spent her life farming and raising her family in the right way.  She was a true Christian, for she loved the Lord and trusted in Him as her guide.  As far back as I can remember, she never said a curse word, for she wasn’t raised that way. 

            After the Gilgo family from Portsmouth and Uncle Jim’s family moved up the Oyster Creek, they farmed a little, but the salt tide had ruined most of our land, and we had to look for other things to do, like working in the water.  The Gilgo brothers, Warren, George and Tom, built

a fish factory on the north side of the creek, just above where the bridge is now.  They made fish scrap and oil, but they only ran the place for a few years.  Joe Dixon had his fish factory on the south side, just out of the creek.  I was just a kid, but I worked with Joe for $10.00 a month and all of the tobacco I wanted.

            After Old Mama died, it looked like everything stopped, because she was the head of the house.  She was the first out of bed by daylight, and had the days work planned.  Yaupon tea was her favorite drink.  She wold get the kind of yaupon she wanted, chop it on an old oak bench and cure it in a big pot.  Old Mama helped people in nay way she could, and there were not many changes in her day, but I have seen a lot of changes in my 86 years.  Our family was the last family

to move from Oyster Creek, but we stayed a long time after all the rest had moved away.  After Mama and Papa died, we gave the place up to the bears, and started working in the water for our living.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me show love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

Once Upon A Time: Stories of Davis, North Carolina by Mabel Murphy Pines, 1979; pp. 69-73.  Written by James W. Salter

Interview with Elsie Davis Hunt : Video Tape, May 19th 2002

Lou: Well lets just start back where we did, growing up at Davis…

Elsie: (Laugh) Well growing up wasn’t hard ya know, when I look  at it now and see what the children do today it probably will to some people ya know they didn’t have anything to do but we did we were always on the go…every Sunday afternoon we’d be out on some man’s boat having fun ya know was taking us for a ride and we would go over to the club house ya know where the beach is..big club house over there, people come down there every summer and in the Winter hunting that sorta thing. So we would always have plenty of water to play in, things like that so we never felt like that we were without other things other people were enjoying, the only thing was…we got a little older and we wanted to go to the beach. Well to begin with we weren’t old enough to drive another reason was, Papa, there were just a few cars around and it was Papa’s livelihood he had to have a car to get him to work and back  everyday ya know so we had to be very careful about that….but we still found plenty to do…the young folks. We would make ice cream,there was about 8 girls of us at one time…you really don’t want to hear this…..(laugh)……

At least 2 or 3 of them would be the sisters ya know…but uh that’s the way we spent our summers…we would be playing with each other going down to the sound swimming…

Lou: You had to make your own fun……

Elsie: We had to make our own fun and uh and Mama, we would scare the living daylights out of her….She had been up early see and we were a little bit younger, we hadn’t got to teenagers yet…and afternoon came we wanted to go swimming..well she had taken care of at least 5 children by that time…fed um’ breakfast, lunch and you know cleaned up the house, sweat,  what ever needed to be done, so she needed some rest…..but we didn’t have sense enough to know it…but anyhow we would go down to the Sound….and we would go out just  as far as we could go up to our necks and we were about that high( Aunt Elsie makes a motion over the floor with her hand and holds it up about 3 ½ , 4 feet ) and all of a sudden we’d look up on the shore and there was Mama, (Aunt Elsie moves her hand like she is her mother and waving someone into shore) waving at us to come in….she was scared to death…all she could see would be our heads! Anyway we went through that phase!(laugh)
tc:2:52:00:12

Lou: What are 2 or 3 things that people need to know about that time in history?

Elise: I remember one thing about Mama was there’s an Island out there where Mama would work,  the hunters would come in she had a cousin, this was before she was married…when the hunters would come…whoever owned the place would have to have help to cook because the hunters would be gone all day hunting and they came in in the evening and they had to have dinner…supper. In the meantime, the ladies got thru with supper they would have to have the lunch ready for the hunters to get up the next morning to go on another hunt.So they were pretty busy ya know doing things like that….and this would be Mama’s cousin and her husband ran this Davis Island thing and he would call on some of the young girls to make some money ya know…to do this work for them. So she did that before she was married of course, I don’t really know a whole lot what they did other than that hearing them talk they would do probably what we did …they would go out in the sailboat with there friends…they did what we did when we were coming along.

Tc:2:54:16:17

Lou: What’s struck me is when you were at the funeral with Papa’s Mom…

Elsie: Oh yes…..

Lou: I don’t want to upset you, but could you tell me that one more time?

Elsie: It doesn’t upset me… I just can’t help from crying…(laugh)

Lou: And why is that? Is that the 1st time you ever saw Papa how emotion?

Elsie: Yeah…..Oh yes, I’m sure of that! And I don’t remember seeing him show any emotion… I don’t really know that next time I did to tell you the truth…but that’s the 1st time I ever saw Papa cry….that day. People, men  would sit on there feet ya know (Elsie makes a motion to squatting down)  and I was tall enough to just come up to his ear….he was holding me ya know…half way in his arm ya know….to keep me up straight I guess….

Lou: So that was the  1st time that you saw him show emotion, was it a weep or small cry?

Elsie: Well, yeah….

Lou: Cause he missed her……

Elsie: Well you know I could see the tears in his eyes….I remember that…(Elsie’s voice start to crack a little from emotion)…yeah…

Lou: Must have made quite an impact on you….for you to remember it….

Elsie: I never forgot it….never forgot it, a lot of things especially that age I don’t think I was maybe 4 or 5 years old..and there was a lot of people there..I remember that but I don’t remember any of them..by name now…

Lou: Ok let’s talk about the 33’ Storm, tell me a little bit about that and Papa and Nannie  going under….

Elsie: (Laughs) I don’t know if they went all the way under but….I guess if was the 1st time in Papa and Mama’s life too that they had seen that much water on Davis… I never have asked to tell you the truth…but I just assume that that was the 1st time the water had ever been up on the roads..I know it had in our lifetime….I was maybe a teenager but even at that point you didn’t have the forethought…you didn’t think about anything else but you…..trying…. to get across the ditch ya know and get on the way to where we want to go…

Tc:2:56:58:24

This is something else that might be interesting… we had a little dog that long(Elsie shows me how long he was across the table) “Sport”and Elizabeth put him down her shirt (laugh) and I remember I walked along with her..but the water…the wind was blowing so hard..the drops of water felt like it was glass on our face…I’ve never forgot that.. I mean it was really blowing…but the rest of it with the dog and all we ….well we laugh about it to this day…like I say this house wasn’t to far from us but it was far enough you could get really afraid about it ya know….hanging on for dear life ya know…

Lou: You used to help Papa with the marriage licenses, tell me a little bit about that…..

Elsie: Well it was easier for me I guess or something… Papa always said I had a good handwriting….he appreciated that in anybody ya know and his was too…its in that courthouse a many a time. Well anyway…we were always real excited about when people was  coming to get marriage licenses and when we were younger …the younger ones would do this to us if  Louise was doing the license or if I was we’d stand in the background and peep around the door….just according to who was gettin the license (laugh) but we never knew fact we woke up Papa middle of the night once or twice for him to get up and issue marriage license. Really at the 1st beginning of that..he didn’t bring them home with him….but he got to the point wear he never knew..people come a knockin’ usually on Saturday night wanting a marriage license so he kept a sheeft of those at home all the time ya know keep up with it. We had something to look forward to , if a strange car come in the yard that’s what they would come for(laugh)

Lou: Someone at the history place told me that he would hand deliver them…

Elsie: Wouldn’t surprise me….

Lou: Alvie Davis’ store tell me about that….

Elsie: Mr. Alvie’s…oh…. I thought it was humongous…he was also the postmaster at Davis.. and in the back of the store was cut off for the Post Office so everybody went there ya know to get their mail… stamps whatever they needed …so it was a big store and then on the other side where he kept everything stored where he was selling…remember he used to have these great big barrells of stuff… I never knew what was in them but I think it was maybe flour or oats of cereal or something like that but at that time I think that they were maybe putting that  in boxes individually I’m not sure…but being as young as we are…things always look so much bigger…when your short than once you get grown…ya know…

Lou: I guess that was the “town crying” place….

Elsie: Right! Yeah! Because the road was paved I don’t think ….Joe Davis built a store across for him and I don’t think that was done until after the road was paved….but I’m really not sure about that…..

Lou: Ok…

Elsie: But anyway I remember talkin’ about roads where so much….we where going to grandmama’s about the car, I remember that cause I was afraid that car was never going to make it….(laugh) it was just going back and forth back and forth ya know…..I guess it had to keep moving…If you ever got stuck I don’t know how they’d ever get it out.

Lou: So was that Papa’s car?

Elsie: No it wasn’t Papa’s car, it was somebody going away from the Oyster Creek….into Davis town itself ….I tell ya there wasn’t too many cars around those days…I don’t know if I was even 6 years old when I remember that…….

Lou: So you said that Mrs. Lena used to write you a little bit?

Elsie: Oh yes yes…Mama had a pretty handwritin’ so I’d write Mama a lot. Well , Papa he would type his out on the typewriter ya know…and he always sent me the News Times, he would buy the News Times and put the rapper around it from him ya know, but I think it was only being printed once a week, but anyway I got the news regardless of where I was(laugh).

Lou: So tell me about you and Louise going down the road when I.W. was born

Elsie: Kickin’ the shells…(laugh)We were pretty tired about that time of children, because we had to help…my goodness when you’re even 8 years old you can hold a baby…whatever it needs ya know…maybe even change a diaper ….I don’t remember ever doing that but I probably did…we were some kinda upset  that another baby was coming to our house …and we would kick them Oyster Shells(laugh) “Another baby at our house, Lord have mercy!”, I’m sure I said that….(laugh) We were just disgusted that we had to hear the baby cry and whatever needs to be done…like we were really being put upon (laugh)

Lou: And later on I.W. ended up being your masqot in High School..

Elsie: Right right! Absolutely yes….

Lou: Do you remember how that process worked at all?

Elsie: I don’t think they do it anymore…but used to every high school class had some child at the start of the school year as a masqot…and of course when they said it, I said,” I got a brother!”(laugh) And they said, “Well bring him on!” acted like they were thrilled to death to hear it! A lot of the kids that I was in school with in different places their daddy and Papa were real good friends so we knew the family ya know….I. W. did a real good job on it…Mama was scared to death he was going to fall out of that chair the night we had our play….they don’t do that anymore.

Lou: Papa had gotten someone to come?

Elsie: Oh yeah the Governor…he was running for Governor then …Governor Broughten…he was out Governor for 4 years…and that would be something else I would tell you about Papa…

Tc:3:05:49:16 taken us to Raleigh one time….

Lou: Go ahead, I’d love to hear it….

Elsie: Louise went up to Campbell College her 1st year out of high school…so we went up to pick her up at Campbell…and we were so close to Raleigh…Papa I guess wanted to go in and see the Governor…we didn’t ask Papa anything we knew whatever he was going to do, he was going to do….and he didn’t ask us anything….but anyway…but anyway the man who was Governor at that time always wore what they call a “swallow tail coat”the old people used years and years ago…I don’t know how to explain it…just a different way that a man wore there coats ya know…and he was an old man….course…everybody was old men so far as we were concerned but, so we went on up stairs with Papa so Papa kept on talking to him(tour guide)and we weren’t paying much attention to what the man was trying to say, I think Papa wanted some answers I’m not sure about that….We saw the way Papa looked at us, I believe that’s the way it was….we knew we were talking too much…he just wished you were paying attention to what this man was saying…so we came on downstairs…Papa followed us…we was afraid he was really going to be mad with us…but anyway…”stay right here, I’ve got to go to the men’s room, don’t you move!”And Papa went to the Men’s room…and when he did we saw the sign that said…Governor…we walked right in there told the Gov’s secretary, told her who we were“We want to see the Governor” she took us right on in the Governor’s Office…. just a few seconds, we told him who we were and we went right on out, about the time we got situated outside…Papa came out of the Men’s Room…says,”don’t you move, stand right there”,says,”I’m going to see the Governor” I said, “Well, we’ve already seen him!”(laugh) He didn’t know what…. 1st time I’d seen Papa smile all day! That’s the truth!(laugh)

Lou: Governor before Broughten?

Elsie: Before, before….

Lou: Was he nice?

Elsie: Oh he was very nice…..he was just a lot older….

Lou: Papa was into Politics…..

Elsie: Oh yes he was…..now this man knew him the Governor knew him…I’m sure….but anyway we were standing outside by that time…didn’t say a word on the way home about us misbehaving…so anyway…we all remembered that…

Tc:3:11:10:11 Story about Papa not recognizing her…..

Elsie: I was standing washing the dishes….and I looked Papa was getting up out of his chair…and he came up and all of a sudden I could feel him on my shoulder….I didn’t say anything….he just went on back and sat down….so I knew he didn’t know who I was…

Lou: And I’m sure that was tough….

Elsie: Oh it was…yeah yeah….but that’s the way it goes…he would by us…anywhere we wanted an ice cream cone was fine..this is when we were small….but he’d never by us a soda, we could never have a Coca-Cola or anything like that…and at this particular time when we was home …I just happen to think about that…we were sitting out in the yard….Tc:3:12:00:05 there was a store right across the street from where they  lived…so somebody had been over to get some Pepsi’s or Coke and by golly her comes Papa with a Pepsi or Coca-Cola and everybodys got to have a Co-Cola …I said, “Why Papa, you don’t drink those things….”so he says, “Their good for you!”, so I knew something was wrong right then….so he fell in love with whatever he was drinkin Coca-Cola or Pepsi ya know…so I think this is when it was 1st starting with him…Tc:3:13:37:06

Lou: Final memories….things you want to pass down…

Elsie: I would hear of how hard the times were…but you see..until you get a certain age that doesn’t register with you…..a child…it really doesn’t…they don’t know the value of money or the value of anything….only know that you liked so in so…I don’t know what to say about that…they were the best of times….as children…growing up…there was not any television…when I think of all the things my children have seen…that I didn’t know about till I was married…and got away from home a lot of times….things like that…I guess that’s just life….or that’s the way it is with most families…

Lou: What would Papa and Mrs. Lena want to tell people if they were alive?

Elsie: I tell you, I thought we were very forunate…our family…that we got to know people…people like in the county….I can remember like one evening…it was snowing….and all of a sudden this big car rides up in the yard and Papa looks up out the window.. and he says,”That’s the Governor!”,and I can’t remember which one now…and the Governor had come , he had this man from Atlantic, Mr. Jim Morris, the one he went to see every Sunday and rocked with him ya know…brought him to our house to Davis…he wanted to get on back towards Raleigh before the snow got so bad that evening….ya know we talk about little things like that….we got to see people maybe or know them or greet um’ important people like the Governors…and around the courthouse…even when I was older I worked with Papa after I was married…because all Deeds were put on the book by typewriter no such thing as machines at that time…then after you typed it you had to read it back…proof read it to somebody in case there was an error, a mistake….and while I worked there around the courthouse…and I did that from time to time…right out of high school…after I finished my commercial course and learned how to type…I’d learn a lot from Papa to tell you the truth…about politics and about people…because he didn’t have no boy to go with him…somehow or another he chose me or I chose him…I never did know..Louise wasn’t quite that interested…she was the oldest and they put more responsibility on her ya know…after all those years being away I came back…next thing ya know..I found myself as Chairman of the Democratic Party of this County(Carteret)and why I ever took that job I’ll never know…(laugh)but anyway I did and held it for 2 years..and I was also selected for college board..I was on that for 6 years..you learn as you go along…I think the only reason was because of my name…ya know the people who still lived here knew who I was…that Papa was my father ya know…so you can do a lot of things with things like that….(starts to tear up)

Lou: Well I thank you so much …we will do more!

Interview with Aunt Elsie Davis Hunt May 16th 2002:

Talking about my father, I.W. Davis, Jr. being born Jan. 16th, 1934:

Louise and I, we where the oldest and we could go around the neighborhood alone, because we where the oldest ya know. And we were going what we call “up the road, down the road” in Davis. We were visiting some girls, we where all cousins, Louise she’d kick those shells out the way, we had shell roads ya know oyster shells and stuff like that put on the roads ya know cause cars was coming into there own about that time and nothing was paved. But anyway, yeah, we were pretty up set about it. Another baby in the family, cause we had already had enough Louise and I, cause we were the oldest see, we were tired of them…..(she laughs!)

Lou: Well let me talk in here and let everyone know who we are talking to We are talking to Elsie Hunt and welcome to another edition of Carteret County Legends…….(we both laugh) This is justfor me so I can keep up with who I’m talking with on tape and we are going to talk about Davis, Papa, Nannie and try to get a collective memory book for the family to pass down to the grandchildren.

We’re looking at a picture right now, an tell me what this picture is we are looking at:

Elsie: It was my high school graduation class at Smyrna High School.

Lou: And what is unique about the picture here?

Elsie: Well not anything, but the reason I wanted you to see this because this was your daddy….(she laughs) and I think he’s got one like it.

Lou: So was it traditional for each class in Smyrna to have a masqot?

Elsie: Yes!

Lou: And what class did it come from?

Elsie: This was the senior class, senior class and you pictured whichever one you wanted ya know, but you see there was 8 neighborhoods that went to the school at that time, I guess they still do. A lot of them do.

Lou: So what year was this Aunt Elsie?

Elsie: This was 1940……..yeah. And uh, so that’s what happened and also at that time, when I graduated we had two nights. The first night we put on a little play, everybody had a little part of it ya know, maybe we have to sing a song or some of the teachers ya know would pick out what play they would do. I don’t believe he (I.W. Davis, Jr. 6 years old )was on the stage with us that night. He may have been, but anyway I know the 2nd night we got our diplomas and he had on a white suit and great big bow around his neck. And Mama said, of course I wasn’t paying much attention, cause I was so excited and I was usually on the back row…. And Mama said, he started getting sleepy and she was scared to death that he was going to fall out of the chair…..(laugh) and the man who was our speaker, Papa had gotten the man who was running for Governor to come and speak to us…. the graduating class. He was Governor Broughton. You may have heard the name here in North Carolina? Anyway he won the office. But he, (I.W), was getting sleepy by that time, and they would have speeches and honors and who was going to get this that and the other…and look like a 5 year old kid, I think he was about 5 years old then ya know they get pretty sleepy long about that time of night. But anyway he made it he never fell out of that chair!(Laugh) Vida Murphy which was from Marshallberg……

Lou: Yes, she lived next door to Grace and Luther (my mother’s parents)

Elise: Yeah I can’t even find her my glasses are in the other room….anyway, she’s on here…Harold Piner,Clara Ford Murphy ya see 8 neighborhoods went to Smyrna.

Lou: So this is just when the war had not broken out yet….

Hitler and Nazi stuff kept people fearful?

Elise: This was is 40’, so uh, WWII started in 41’yeah yeah yeah.

Lou: In relationship to the other daughters of Papa you where the 3rd?

Elsie: No I was number 2….Louise was the oldest.

Lou: And Louise had already graduated, where did she go?

Elsie: Well she went to college, a Baptist College, right outside of Fayettville, N.C. Its grown a lot since then yeah. It was just a Jr. college then yeah.

(Turned the tape over here)

Lou: You didn’t get a chance to go to college because of why?

Elsie: No, well see he(Papa) was campaigning that year and it took a lot of money and listen their salaries wasn’t much back then, way back then.

Lou: So Papa was actively campaigning for the Deeds Office?

Elsie: For the Deeds Office again yeah……but Louise went just one year and when I graduated , In Morehead Mr. Joslyn who was the principal at that time in the Morehead City Schools which was the biggest one in the county, he had , he somehow or another, they started what they call a “Commercial Course”. You could take shorthand, and what else?….. there was about three subjects we took, learn to type. So I got to go to Morehead, to what we call the “Commercial Course”. And at that time,you know, you could get a good job with just knowing how to run a typewriter.And I did I worked for Papa a number of years, and then after I was married I would come in if some of the ladies would want a day off or on vacation ya know,because at that time all Deeds were typed out (laugh).

Lou: Talk a little about what the process was for Papa running for Office, what you saw him do and what you guys went through.

Elsie: Well to tell you the truth, we didn’t get into that until we were a little bit older, because listen we hadn’t even been out on a date by ourselves by the time we graduated high school.(laugh)

Lou: Would Papa not let you go?

Elsie: No, well see everybody was so scattered in all these little neighborhoods and very few of the parents had cars. Now the ones that did, we’d get to ride with them like if there was something going on at the school, ya know, but boy when it was over we’d get to ride a little bet there in Symrna, ya know with the young men until later on after they got out of high school got jobs and stuff like that.
Lou: So if you had a car growing up on Davis Shore you were set?

Elsie:You’re right, there was not too many cars on Davis, No. I was married and had left Davis before the roads were paved, there was still dirt roads out that way ya know east of Beaufort. So, it took them a long time. They just didn’t have the money. Well and the people too, there wasn’t that many people see, because we didn’t have the influence of people in Morehead and Beaufort and all over the county like we have today.

Lou: So what year were you married and you married Frank?

Elsie: I was married in …….I can’t even remember…..42’or 43’?

Lou: So you met Frank in the Army…

Elsie: Yeah he was in Davis, stationed in Davis.

Lou: With Virginia’s husband…Wally.

Elsie:Yeah they worked together, but he had got out of the Army when we married. He went home, stayed awhile, then he called the night and we were going to get married. So he came on and stayed here until, we were married like two years maybe 3, maybe 2 and a half years and we bought the whole Army Camp and uh and built a house there, still there.

Lou: Oh your kidding, really?

Elsie: Yeah yeah….he just wasn’t satisfied and he wanted to get back in the Army. He was in the reserves because at that time they didn’t discharge them, they went into the reserves just in case. He didn’t have much trouble getting back in. So then we sold the house to Marlon Murphy a fellow on Davis. And so I went traveling with him.(laugh)

Lou: Went out to Texas?

Elsie: Well, the first place I went with him, I met him in Hawaii. His first assignment was in Korea and it was the coldest Winter on record I think they said. His regiment wad in Korea and they were sent to Hawaii and that’s where I met him.We where over there 2 years. Had a great time! No children did anything we wanted to, didn’t save a dime! (laugh)

Lou: So what did Papa think about you getting married? Was there any discussion between Frank and Papa about him taking his daughter away?

Elsie:Well he did, he asked Papa for my hand!(laugh)

Lou: Do you remember how he did it?

Elsie: No, cause I went into another room!(laugh)I didn’t want to hear it! I don’t know if I was embarrassed or scared!(laugh)

Lou: Really? About Papa’s response to Frank?

Elsie: Well I guess it was OK, because by that time he had gotten to know Frank ya know, by coming round to the house you know and things like that. So they got along very well.

Lou: Where did you guys get married?

Elsie: We got married at Davis at our house!I have a whole album of the whole thing!

Lou: That’s incredible!

Elsie: Yeah!

Lou: So Papa knew the inevitable was coming he just didn’t know when……gave you his blessing and everything?

Elsie:Yeah….

Lou: And how old where you at that time probably 19, 20?

Elsie: I think I was about 23 when I was married…yeah yeah.. I was getting to be an old lady.(laugh ,slaps her knee)

Lou: Well tell me about some of your first memories that you have down there…What are some of the memories that you want to pass on to Papa’s grandkids and great-grandchildren?

Elsie: Well you have to be a certain age before you appreciate it, teenagers could care less, but when you get a little bit older,ya know, you want to know more…everybody and everything ya know.Mama was always the one who told us about people in the neighborhood ya know, I don’t know if there was 600 people on Davis at that time…….when we came along. Roads where all dirt, but anyway we felt like we were blessed because Papa had a car, had a job, I guess they were going through pretty hard times even when we came along.

Lou: Right before the Depression, you were born in the 20’s I would think?

Elsie: Yeah right! And she had a lot of friends, cousins, we where related to everybody!(laugh) It was a good life! And when we were growing up teenagers, when we could go out with our girlfriends ya know, we where always near the water. And then later on when we where in high school, the way our recreation was like on the weekends, all the young boys took us a boat riding, and we were all on the same boat because one of the daddies had a boat, that’s how we got our recreation…go out in the sound, they’d take us over to the beach to Davis Island it was over there. Yeah, we would go down to Davis Island sometime too, which is right near Marshallberg. The man from Davis, Grover Davis , was in charge of Davis Island. So we would go down there and pick up oysters and cook-um and do things like that for our recreation. By this time we were workin’, some of us, but you just had to make your own recreation and things that you did ya know, because we didn’t have any money for cars like the kids today ya know, get out of high school you get a car!(laugh)

Lou: Was there a radio around the house?

Elsie: Oh yes, I remember when we had to study by the lamps, but uh, by this time though we had had electricity in the house yeah yeah. That was a big help.

Lou: But there was a time in Davis in the house when you didn’t have electicity?

Elsie: Right, when we were small we all sat around the dining room table with the lamp you know, doing our lesson.(laugh)

Lou: So I guess it was pretty exciting to get electricity then?

Elsie: Oh yeah I guess so,yeah, but I think you have to be a certain age to appreciate things like that, it was just routine,we didn’t think a thing about it. And I remember, I just do remember,  when the roads came through(dirt) what I remember about that was we where going up to grandmama’s, mama’s mother, which she lived way up the road, it was up the road or down the road where you lived and she lived up the road, and I think it was maybe about a half a mile. But I remember, that the road, that  was the muddiest road and dirt I’d ever seen in my life…. And there was this car coming, an old Model-T and that thing was just twisting back and forth like this ya know, I thought they were going to get stuck, but I guess they knew what they were doing, that’s the only thing I remember about that road was that day we were going to visit grandmama and that car I thought   was going to get stuck.(laugh)

Lou:And what was your grandmother’s name?

Elsie: Emma Clark, Emma Clark Willis. Mama’s mother was a Babbit and married a man from Williston. So we are related to have of Williston too.(laugh)

Lou: And that’s where we get the Revolutionary War connection…is it Henry Williston?

Elsie: Right Henry yeah yeah right right.

Lou: Papa ran the Deeds Office for quite some time?

Elsie: Yeah, Papa taught school 20 some years…

Lou: Where did he teach at?

Elsie: Well he taught at Beaufort up Hwy 101 and uh he was a principal up there and he had a girlfriend up there, that was before he and Mama was married, Mrs. Rosa Merrell was Papa’s girlfriend she wasn’t a Merrell, but she married one later on. Her husband made a lot of money, big farmers and her son still lives up there. Course they were all Democrats so that was alright!(laugh)I don’t know how many years he taught up there, but it was before he and momma were married though. He taught his last year at Davis and that was the year he went into the Register of Deeds Office.He only taught a half a year because you’d go in on December after the election. He taught 20 some years, and he started out as a young man to teach really.

Lou:He probably hit the Deeds Office in his early 40’s?

Elsie: Probably so, I never thought about it that way.

Lou: He got to know a lot of people with his job in the county, can you tell me a little bit about that? People who got married had to go see him obviously…..

Elsie: By this time, things were really looking up for everone. The roads were in, things like that. People didn’t have many cars to start off with, I mean when he first went in, but it was later on after we were grown really, they would come to our house on nights and on weekends to get a marriage license, because at that time you didn’t have to have a blood test. All you had to have was who you were.You’d know your parents names and stuff like that, wrote out many a one, right in our living room and then they’d take the license and go on and see the preacher or the J.P. (Justice of the Peace) whatever. They would wake us up in the middle of the night I remember, so Papa would get either Louise or I sense we were the oldest, to write it out for them. We would right pretty good so you could still read it!(laugh)

Lou: So you guys were issuing the marriage licenses for Papa?

Elsie: We would write the name, but he would have to sign it of course, his name would have to be on it ya know yeah!

Lou: How did Papa feel about being woken up in the middle of the night for that?

Elsie: Well I say that, we were a few times but most of the time they were there early in the evening the would show up, but once in a while they would.

Lou: He wasn’t never displeased about being bothered?

Elsie: No, no! If he did we didn’t notice it. In fact a number of people were married in our church in Davis and they’d come to our house, I remember on Sunday morning and get a license and then they would stop when our church turned out, well they were already out because Papa was home, and he’d give them the license and they’d go up to the church and our preacher would marry them!(laugh)

Lou: From your memory, can you talk about some of the “highs” and “lows” that maybe Lena and Papa experienced as you were growing up? Any times that concerned you?

Elsie: Well, I don’t know I never noticed. Anything like that to tell you the truth, I don’t know if there was ever anytime during the day when we were young and school time, we were sitting around the table studying. And of course if we needed help, ya know, Papa or Mama one would be there with us. Maybe the highlight of the day was after Papa got home and was dinner time, time for supper ya know. But he missed a lot of suppers with us because especially in campaign time, we never knew when to see Papa when he was having to run, because at first they had to run every 2 years to be elected, and later on they made it 4 years which was a great help to the people that were running. In the Winter, it was always dark(by the time Papa got home) because the days were so short, now in the Summer, there was time enough after Papa got home we would eat and he would walk up to the store, to Mr. Alvie’s store up there, there was about 5 of those men, they were all Democrats and Papa would catch up on what had gone on in Davis that day. They were the “town criers”. Now see we didn’t know this when we were young, because we didn’t pay any attention to what was going on, but we’ve talked about it since then, we could see Papa and Mr. Hamlen, there was about 5 or 6 of them and I’ll tell you something else on them….there was 2 stores by his time up on that corner at Davis and if some of the ones came in like Republicans to buy something or to do something, if they were discussing politics and everything else,(Aunt Elsie claps hands together) shut there mouths just like a clam! They wouldn’t say a word till they were gone!(laugh)They kept it to themselves and I never knew, I don’t know Papa ever told Mama thew things they would talk about you know. But Papa would catch up with the Davis news after dinner at night. He went to that store every night! In the summer he would walk, because it was still daylight ya know. That was his recreation for the day was to get over and see Mr. Alvie, Mr. Hamlen and people like that.

Mr. Alvie owned the store and his son worked there two, cause there were only about 2 stores on Davis at that time. But anyway they knew what to do.This was in the 30’ and 40’s yeah.

Lou: So where those Papa’s friends?

Elsie: Yes, they were all friends, everybody knew everybody. By this time Papa had a car, see Papa babysat us, we didn’t know that word at that time. After we got grown and we didn’t have to wear diapers and more or less take care of ourselves, there was Louise and I, Elizabeth and Virginia he would take us to Atlantic with him every Sunday afternoon, that way he gave Mama a day off. Cause she already had another one(Pearl) by that time ya know. So Papa was a good babysitter, we didn’t know that word at that time, but later on after we got grown we decided that’s what was going on. He was just giving her a day of rest!(laugh)

Lou: Their relationship was one of love and….

Elsie: Yeah yeah they were together a long time yeah yeah!

Lou: I know that Papa was a deacon in the church down there(1st Baptist, formerly Davis Missionary Baptist Church)…

Elsie: No he never was a deacon, but he was the one who keeps the records, marriages and uh Baptism and stuff like that…..

Lou: Recorder?

Elsie: Recorder yeah yeah yeah

Lou: I heard some people talking at Kelly’s (my sister)wedding yesterday that they used to see Papa pick people up and bring  them to church…

Elsie: Oh yes…

Lou: They thought he was just being nice, didn’t know he was related to them…

Elsie: Laughs……

Lou: Was that what he did often?

Elsie: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,  Mrs. Olive was Mama’s 1st cousin and she was the pianist for the church and she had a right long walk. See when they were younger, these people he would pick up to take to church,   they would walk a mile every Sunday morning up in the uh, where most of the Salters lived, the Creek where they lived. (Oyster Creek)And they would walk that mile every Sunday morning and be in Sunday school on time, stay for Sunday school. Papa took Mrs. Olive, she was getting kinda fat too, but boy she could play that piano!(laugh) Now she took lessons, she and my mother were 1st cousins, she never missed a note! We talk about that when we get together, “Mrs. Olive never missed a note!” And she learned to play on the organ, and she could play that piano too!  Now this was actually after we were married and had left home the oldest ones of us that he would do that and then he would go up by Mr. Vernon’s, Mr. Salter and pick him up and anybody else that he had room for he would pick them up yeah.

Lou: At what point did you really  notice that Papa was a “big dude” in the politics in the county? Wasn’t he chairman of the Democratic Party for a while?

Elsie:For 20 some years….for 20 years he was chairman yeah. You know, I don’t know if we ever thought about that but we would say, “Papa knows everyone in Carteret County”, you know, we couldn’t do anything wrong!(laugh) And that type older people, I guess if their children, if some man saw somebodys child doing something wrong, they’d tell their parents ya know. I had to make sure he didn’t find out anything on me!(laugh) But they would! Up around what they called the corner, it was sort of the gathering place…

Lou: The corner where Tommy Davis’ (I meant Johnny Davis’)store was?

Elsie:Where the store is on the corner now.

Lou: Mr. Alvie Davis’ store?

Elsie: Mr. Alvie’s yeah……it was Johnny Davis’ store that’s the corner. We were gone from Davis a long time before that was there.

Lou: So we are talking a totally different store from Johnny Davis’ store?

Elsie: Yeah uh huh…the big store where Papa visited every night was right across the road from Johnny Davis’store….yeah yeah yeah.

Lou: I guess you were born…

Elsie: In 22’…

Lou: So you remember the storm of 33’?

Elsie: Oh well I should say I do! Absolutely!

Lou: Tell me about the storm of 33’ and what it did to you guys, I know it pushed you out of the house didn’t it?

Elsie: Yeah well, we left home that night but we didn’t get that much damage, what happened was the storm was on the way, was coming and Papa had been down to the store(Alvies) by this time the water hadn’t come up but he came home a little bit early if I remember right. We were getting ready to go to bed, now where our house was, between the living room and the dining room there was a little step down, because when the house was built the dining room was not added to it. Papa’s Uncle built this house when Papa was just a young boy.

Lou: Whats his name?

Elsie: Martin Ross, Martin Ross Davis. We were getting ready to go to bed and between the living room and dining room there was just  this little step down. And Mama stepped down in the dining room and the water was there coming in our house! I guess everybody was just standing around talking, anyway, Pearl was the baby, oh course when they saw that that was the first time that had ever happened on Davis. Papa was just scared to death Mama said. She said,”’We’re going over to”, where our house was the ground was a little bit lower than a couple of houses up from us, so we, they got us all up out of bed, got our clothes on and went next store to Ms. Helen’s which our house was not really to far from her. We got to Ms. Helen’s, she had two sons living with her they never did marry, and we woke them up! So we stayed on their house on the porch, Papa went up to Mr. Alvie’s , the one who owned the store,by this time, water was up on the road, Virgil, Papa’s nephew, came back with him to help us get across the ditch in front of Ms. Helen’s house. He and Mama almost went under, but anyway that’s where we spent the night.

Lou: Now there is a story that you almost lost Pearl….

Elsie: Yeah…

Lou: What happened with that?

Elsie: Well uh, not Pearl, it was, Virgil had her, but uh, Papa lost Mama, but they went down in the ditch. But the rest of us, I guess he pushed the rest of us across the ditch…

Lou: You were in a boat?

Elsie: No no, no we were walking the ditch was probably about this wide, (Aunt Elsie makes an arm stretch about 3 feet) it wasn’t one of these great big canal things, just a drainage ditch in front of their house. So Virgil took Pearl in his arms and Mama and Papa went under then that left Louise, me, Elizabeth and Virginia, still had four more people to look after. But anyway, now who was it had the dog? We had a little dog named “Sport”, I think it was Elizabeth had Sport in her arms, but anyway we made it alright. The ditch wasn’t  that deep, but with the water in it, water already on the roads ya know, it seemed like it was  a lot more water than it really was.

Lou: So I guess Nannie, would have been pregnant with my Dad?

Elsie: Right, right, right she was uh huh yeah she was….

Lou: That was probably one of the biggest storms to come through the last Century.

Elsie:Oh yes, they’ve had water to come up on the roads since then, but not in anyone’s house( It did during Isabel 2003) far as I know. Yeah that was a biggie, the 33’ storm.

Lou: What was the typical, when Papa did eat with you guys, what was the ritual? Did you say a prayer?Did you just start eating?

Elsie: Laughs…..Soon as everybody got down and we got everything pass around then start eating yeah…no we never did have prayer, maybe later on in the years but not at that time, while most of us were at home. After a certain time, we could only wait so long, we had to get to our books if it was in the Winter time, so it didn’t seem unusual to us ya know that Papa was gone a lot and especially campaign time, we never knew when to look for him or Mama either. There was never any talk about it, it was just a routine thing with us by that time when you grown up and things like that.

Lou: And his Parenting, did he spend a lot of time with you when you guys were little kids or was he just trying to make ends meet a lot?

Elsie: He would help us anytime he could, like in the books and something like that. I remember when Louise and I were small, because he had this rocking chair and he would put me on one arm and her on the other and he would rock us ya know. We had no electricity then, no radio or anything, so you had to make your own fun! At that time we had a great big fire place on the house and they would use that before it was really time to get the wood to the house. I don’t remember what the wood stove looked like to tell you the truth, but then later on we got a big stove, it took it right to the chimney, boy it kept us warm though. It would warm up the whole front of the house. We had 2 bedrooms upstairs and 1 bedroom downstairs at that time.

Lou: You and Louise share?

Elsie: Yeah most of us did, we had 2 beds in the one room upstairs and Mama and Papa was upstairs. I just can remember this, the younger ones don’t, when they built this house they never built the kitchen to the big house. And later on, later years, they would move part of it or they would just add on to whatever ya know, so they could heat everything.

Lou: So there was a part of the house at one point where the kitchen wasn’t involved with it?

Elsie: The kitchen and dining room where separate ya know. There was always a door ya know, weather they needed it or not.  (laugh) There was always a door, right, right. After we got older, the porch was on the north side of the house, so they , I guess the moved the dining room maybe a moving company or something came and moved that and then the part that was the walkway, like a hallway from the living room to the porch that took you to the kitchen. What they did, they just took the porch down and put a big bedroom for 2 big beds for us all by that time.

Lou: So when electricity came you still heated the house…

Elsie: With wood, with wood yeah.

Lou: With electricity you got an icebox?

Elsie: Oh yeah yeah right.

Lou: And you were able to keep food a little longer, but before then what were some of your meals?

Elsie:More or less in the Winter, things were real cold, because nobody had a heated house , the coldest room in the house would keep the food ya know, later on, but I remember when the electric came. Well we used to have what they called an icebox, the man would come with ice on the truck and you’d buy this big piece of ice for so many days a week ya know, and that would keep things. That was the beginning of it. After electric came in this icebox, because you had to let it drip in a pan under the ice ya know so that had to be emptied everyday and that was a nusince.(laugh)

Lou: I can imagine!

Elsie: Yeah!

Lou: And again along those lines I guess radio came in, do you ever remember sitting around with the family listening to radio?

Elsie: Oh yes! Well the first time I remember radio, we were  over to Mr. Alvie’s ,ya know, Papa’s friend, they lived real close to us. Alot of times when Kate Smith would sing on Sunday nights, we’d all go over and the children sat on the floor but the neighbors would all come in, whoever had the radio, they were the only ones who could afford one to begin with…then later on when the electric came then everybody had a radio, ya know, so we could keep up with what was going on.(Laugh)

Lou: So what do you remember Kate Smith singing? God Bless America?

Elsie: No, no way before that. Cause that didn’t come in till WWII. So much about God Bless America that stuff ya know. She would sing, that’s about all I would remember about that to tell you the truth. Jack Benny would come on, I guess its just how Papa or Mama felt whether we could, we had to study lessons, sometimes we would stay to hear more, but a lot of times we wouldn’t. And it wasn’t like a ritual, it wouldn’t be like every Sunday night but maybe real often.

Lou: So I guess Jack Benny was a pretty funny guy back then?

Elsie: Oh yes oh yeah and uh, I know there was some others but I can’t think of their names right now.

Lou: Do you remember Amos and Andy?

Elsie: Amos and Andy oh yeah! Boy, what fun they were!(laugh) The kids thought they were funny!

Lou: Jumping forward a little bit here, Nannie ended up blind from Gluacoma, and Papa died at Davis before that or did he?

Elsie: He died in Beaufort, they had moved to Beaufort when he died yeah yeah, in fact they lived there quite a while. Mama was almost blind at that time. She had gluacoma and didn’t know it.

Lou: They decided to move into Beaufort to be closer?

Elsie: Well because, the last child left home, Jessie, they stayed at Davis for quite awhile by thierselves, but it got to the point where if somebody was sick or needed a doctor or needed help, people would help them but it was mostly older people like, who couldn’t afford to stay away from home that long, they just couldn’t give um much time, the time that was needed. So I was gone at that time when they closed the house.

Lou: Did you keep up with letters or phone?

Elsie: Oh yeah! I knew what was going on. And when I was in Hawaii , I heard from Papa real often. Mama, she would write ya know, but she got to the point where it was hard to read. By that time we were up in Maryland. They got along real well. After Papa retired, they still had the car and his mind was good and they got in some of the organizations, of course they were always in the Democratic Party. They would have watermelon cuttings up at Cedar Point where Papa had a friend, Mr. Ennett, up there, grows all the best watermelon in the world. They just had a real good time, for a number of years after that. Papa, people thought he had Alzheimers but he really didn’t what he had was, it was like a stroke that went to his head and caused him to lose his memory. The blood sugar, I forgot now what they said. He held up real good. The last time I was home, he didn’t know me. I didn’t think it was that bad till I got here, and he could still get up and go to the bathroom, walk around the yard and do things like that but one day I was washing dishes and I looked and he was coming in right along side of me and he did his head like this(Elsie tilts her head to the side and moves closer in) so he could see my face……..he didn’t know who I was.

Lou:I know that had to be tough for you….

Elsie:(Aunt Elsie started to cry and laughed a little, pulled out a tissue and wiped her eyes)

Lou: Are you OK?

Elsie: Yes I’m alright, you have to cry once in a while….its very sad…..but anyway its alright……its alright…..( I begin to give her a hug) We all are going to get that way or something ya know is going to have to take us. But anyway, I really was really glad that they moved into town(Beaufort) cause I would think about it so often, but they could just take care of each other. But Pearl lived with them for awhile and then she went ahead and got an apartment, they really did real good yeah, yeah.

Lou: I’m sorry I don’t mean to upset you, I really don’t.

Elsie: (laughs) Oh I’m not upset, ya know, by this time you accepted it. But there are times when crying will do.

Lou: ( Now I get teary eyed) I know I can’t get down to Marshallberg….

Elsie: With Mr. Luther and Mrs. Grace, don’t you miss them?

I know you do!

Lou: You know the older I get, I just see the world that my kids are growing up in…

Elsie: Right!

Lou: and I just know how safe I felt down here.

Elsie: Right..

Lou: and I knew that I was loved and accepted, I was special, ya know…

Elsie: Right….

Lou: when I came down here, just kinda want to preserve that..( I wipe another tear)

Elsie: (laugh)

Lou: As much as I can…

Elsie: Right!

Lou: a collective history…and that’s really what I’m after, not only that I can have and my children but everybody and all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Elsie: Right ,right…

Lou: You know, I was only 1 , when Papa, when I came along. I had lunch with Margret today and she filled me in, that she was at the house…

Elsie: When he died?

Lou: Yeah , and she filled me in on that and I never knew how that happened…

Elsie: I think he went very peacefully Mama said, just laid down on the bed, I think he’d been to the bathroom, I believe is what she said. Yeah, very fortunate that it was no worse.Could have been a lot worse.

Lou: But Nannie, she moved in with Louise after that……

Elsie: Yeah…

Lou: Was the gluacoma a progressive thing did they know what was going on with her and just couldn’t stop it?

Elsie: She could do real well, she used to write me ya know, I’d get letters from her, sometimes the pen would sorta slip or something like that ya know. But she really did good for a long long time.

Lou: She was the best with me, when I would go in there, I think I’ve told you this story before, Dad and Mom would make sure we were fed and everything and drop us off at the house(Louise’s) my dad would say, “Now Mama, these kids have been fed, we’ve given them something to drink you don’t need to give them anything. Let them sit and watch TV, don’t get up to get them anything.” And she’d listen out the window and the car would get down the road(Elsie starts to laugh)and the 1st thing out of her mought was,”You want a Pepsi?”.(Elsie belly ache laughs)

Elsie: Well of course!

Lou: We’d walk her into the kitchen, feeling with the purse hangin’ off her elbow..

Elsie: Right!

Lou: We’d get us a Pepsi and she’d sit there and talk with us, and were sucking on those Pepsis trying to get them undone, and she’d say, “Here give it to me” and she’s click it off for us.(Elsie is still laughing thru all this)I mean just the best!

Elsie: Right right! Its just something they do for you!

Lou: She was the best! Always give us love money before we left…

Elsie: And listen, she would do me them same way, when we would get ready to leave with the kids, “Mama don’t fix nothin’ , listen just don’t bother.” And I declare to you, we would be ready to back out the yard and here she’d come with those samwhiches. She’d say“You”ll like them when you get down the road!” and we did!(Another belly ache laugh!) But that’s the way she was, she had to do something for you.

Lou: I remember Dad going to the funeral and I couldn’t get there, none of us came everybody’s in school……just wish they’d would have let me come, but that was their decision not mine back then…...but I’ve been down to see the gravesite its real pretty for what they’ve got down there…

Elsie: Yeah it is….that’s were he wanted to be(Papa) (laughs)

Lou: So is that an old family plot down there where they are buried?

Elsie: Yes, Papa’s sister is buried right behind him(Girlie) and her husband. Well, I’ll tell you, after the storm, I say the storm, but everybody knows it was the 33” Storm, it came up so high , some of the graves washed out of the plot, especially the ones who hadn’t been there a number of years. And maybe Papa had already asked about Uncle Willy, he’s a cousin to Uncle Willy where he’s born, I mean where he’s buried. Uncle Willy, that’s his house that sits right by that cememtery and he didn’t want to make a great big community cemetery right there by the house or his sons or daughters didn’t want it and most of them are buried there, its more like a family cememtery in there. But Papa, Aunt Girlie they were related to Uncle Willy, he’s not their Uncle but ya know we had to have a handle for everybody!

Lou: And Aunt Girlie was Papa’s sister….

Elise: Yeah! And she didn’t want to be buried at the other end of Davis, that’s where her husbands family lived. So anyway, so she’s buried there. And the little grave right by Mama and Papa was grandmama’s grave,Papa’s mother Elizabeth….yeah. And I remember the day she died,uh they said that I was her “pet”(laugh) that’s what they always told me, “You were always ‘Grandmother’s Pet”. I don’t remember too much about her, I remember seeing her one morning, I was upstairs and she came calling for Papa, he was still in bed, must have been the weekend or something like that, and something had happened and I remember she had this black shawl over her head, and ya know, that’s the only thing I remember about her. The whole family,not Papa but Aunt Girlie always said, “I was her pet.” So that’s all I know. I don’t really remember very much about her except the day she was buried, they took me to the cemetery and I remember Papa, they didn’t have chairs then  like they have now for people to sit in if they want to….. and Papa was bending down and he put me on his knee and I remember Papa started crying………..(Elsie starts to cry herself) that’s all I remember. That was his mother, his mother’s funeral. She was named Elizabeth, they named Elizabeth after her. I’ve talked so much I feel like you’ve not been getting many things than,  more than what you already……

Lou: Aunt Elsie, I’ve gotten more than what I’ve dreamed of….absolutely!

Elsie: Yeah! Well, I tell you, I know, I know,about the storm, that was a bad time. I remember Papa’s twin brother, we all got over to Mr. Alvies house fine. Well Aunt Girlie, Papa’s sister and her family was there too, I think we were the only other family. The water came up on the stairs, maybe the 2nd or 3rd step before it quit coming up that high, but the house was full of people. Now this is the man who had the store ya know, so the next morning at daylight, the men were out ya know you forget thru the years, but um we looked coming up the road was Papa’s brother Uncle Dick and another couple in a boat and Uncle Dick was coming to see how we made out that night but we were about maybe I don’t know 100 yards, well more than that, not too, we could see the house from where we were but everybody had a big yard and everything 2,3 houses in between us, but anyway that was very sad. And I think about Uncle Dick, he was almost crying cause they went to our house seeing nobody was there, but he figured we had to be somewhere so they came on up we saw  um’. But the water then was very high, people were coming up and down in the boats right  on that road there that night.

Lou: So a lot of damage to the house?

Elsie: No, there wasn’t much damage to the house, that was the strange part about it….

Lou: Have to shovel it out or anything?

Elsie: Yeah, mud……….there was a lot of dirt on the floors, but that was about it. I think, I think what happened was the took the chairs and got um’ up as high as they could on other chairs if I remember right. As far as I know, none of the bed’s really got wet, the mattresses in them.

Lou: Well that was good!

Elsie: Yeah!

Lou: Well, trying to see if there is anything that I’m missing. Anything of interest that you think people would want to know about that time? That would translate to other generations?

Elsie: No, but things come and go ya know, I think about when, when  I.W. was born, I think there is about 4 or 5 years difference between he and Pearl yeah, yes. And I remember that morning, ya see by that time, Louise and I , I would guess we were getting ready to go to high school, and the road at Davis were all shells, you used to see these Oyster Shells around the houses, to were they would open the oysters ya know and put them in the cans and send them up north or where ever they was gonna sell um’, and uh, they put those shells on the roads because of  to save the dirt I guess, but the cars ya know, I guess that’s why it was done…..because there wasn’t too many cars at that time either. But anyway, they used those shells to fill in those deep ruts in the road, the rest of it would be dirt. School wasn’t going on or it may have been a Saturday, we were going up the road to visit a friend of ours, Louise and I , and we would walk along and we would kick them shells, “Another baby in the house, another baby in the house!”(Laugh) I. W. has heard this! It wasn’t long before he was one of us.(Laugh) but Louise and I ,we didn’t want anymore babies in that house! By this time, we could take care of a baby, by this time Elizabeth was walking I’m sure and Virginia and Jesse Lee, Lord yes, I remember when Jesse Lee was born too. At that time, I don’t believe that Louise and I knew where they came from!(laugh)That’s the truth! Because girls then, didn’t find out about such things until they were a little older. N o TV or nobody to show um’ ya know mama and daddy was the only ones who could do it, tell you about it! I always remember that how disappointed we were, that we were going to have to start taking care of another baby!(laugh)

Lou: But not only that…

Elsie: It was the diapers!

Lou: Well, not only that but the fact there was so many girls….

Elise: Right right, Oh God!, Everybody in Carteret County knew when he was born, that’s the truth! I mean to tell you, he would go straight to Atlantic to Mr. Jim Morris’ well there was 2 or 3 groups of men, all Democrats, they’d sit on Mr. Jim Morris’ front porch every Sunday afternoon discuss politics, at that time this man held office, I don’t know if it was in the county or maybe a state office, Mr. Morris…..so they would find out whatever was going on “DownEast” from these people. And so Papa he took us with him, and listen it was good therapy for Mama, because by this time, she could put 2 babies to bed and she could get a nap herself when she needed. She never got to go to Sunday school, when the babies were small and Papa would always bring somebody home to eat!(laugh)It’s the truth! But it was Mr. John A. (Hill or Pill can't hear her that well)his wife had died and his son lived with him, but his son was already grown, gettin ready to get married, and we would go up, if Papa was not feeling good , he wanted to go home, after Louise and I got old enough to drive the car, we had to go get Uncle John to come and have lunch with us. Well, I think he got tired of it after a while, but things like that ya know. We’ve talked about it a lot since.

Lou: So you think everybody knew that Bud( I.W.) was born….

Elsie: Everybody in this county knew when he came along…

Lou: Just cause he was a boy or….

Elsie: Just cause he was a boy, well I say everybody, but all the people that Papa knew were the politicians, knew that he had 5 girls and no boy, so they, all the men were really please to know that he finally got a boy! (laugh) Yeah they did! People tell, “We all knew when he was born!”(laugh)

Lou: Well anything else, cause I want to give you a break here for about 5 minutes cause I’m going to go get my camera…and I’d like to retouch on some things that we have talked about in front of the video camera is that OK?

Elsie: You may be disappointed on those videos my voice!

(laugh)

Lou: I won’t be….

Elsie: I feel like I haven’t given you much information really….

Lou: And why is that?

Elsie: Well, I just talk so much!

Lou: You’ve done a great job and that’s what I want you to do! If I was asking a lot of questions you’d  know I was worried!

Elsie: (laughs)But you want this for your father more or less?

Lou: I want it for everybody, my vision and my hope is that I can give a copy  or some sort of manuscript ……….(tape runs out at this point)