Behind the Apron Project: Mary Dawkins Interview, 1997
Web Video Text Tracks Format (WebVTT)
WEBVTT
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Shelia Montague Parker: What is your birth date?
Mary Dawkins : First month, thirteenth day, [[twentieth?]] year.
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Shelia Montague Parker: And your present address?
Mary Dawkins : 602 Sollers Wharf Road, Lusby, Maryland, 20657.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Where were you born?
Mary Dawkins : Lower Marboro
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Shelia Montague Parker: Lower Marlbery?
Mary Dawkins : Maryland.
Shelia Montague Parker: Is that here in Calvert, or?
Mary Dawkins : Yes.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. And that's where you grew up at?
Mary Dawkins : No. Grew up in Lusby, in Calvert.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Where in Lusby?
Mary Dawkins : Ah, Sollers Wharf Road.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Ah, okay. Who were the names of your immediate family, your mother, your father, your sisters and brothers.
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Mary Dawkins : [[pray sir?]]
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Shelia Montague Parker: Your mother, your father, your sister and brothers, what was their names?
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Mary Dawkins : My grandmother raised me.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Your grandmother?
Shelia Montague Parker: Yes. Her name was Maud Brooks.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Did she have sisters and brothers?
Mary Dawkins : I have sisters, yes: Leola, Iva, Lorraine, Jeanette, Ethel, Darleen; brothers: Thomas, Robert, Maud.
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Shelia Montague Parker: What is your maiden name?
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Mary Dawkins : Mary High
Shelia Montague Parker: Mary High? Okay. Is your parents still living, or?
Mary Dawkins : My mother died in December.
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Shelia Montague Parker: This year? And your father?
Mary Dawkins : He's been dead quite a few years.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Is your grandmother still living?
Mary Dawkins : No, she's been dead quite a few years.
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Shelia Montague Parker: And you grew up in Lusby?
Mary Dawkins : Yes.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Do you have sisters and brothers are still living in the family home?
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Mary Dawkins : No, they've all moved away. I've one living in Prince Frederick, Leola.
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Shelia Montague Parker: And the others?
Mary Dawkins : Others, mostly in Prince George County.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Your grandmother raised you. What was your grandmother's occupation?
Mary Dawkins : Housewife.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Tell me a little bit about the community what you grew up in, your neighbours, your friends.
Mary Dawkins : Very quiet. Grandmother raised me and there was a lot of love. We had a lot of friends. Lot of visitors.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Did your grandmother raise all of your sisters and brothers or just you?
Mary Dawkins : No, just me.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Just you? Okay. What about this school that you attend. What school did you attend?
Mary Dawkins : I attend Lusby School and then I, Brooks High School.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Brooks. Tell me some of the things that you did at school. What was the day like for you?
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Mary Dawkins : It was fine.
Shelia Montague Parker: What were some of your recess activities?
Mary Dawkins : Dodgeball [[laughs]]
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay! I think everybody played dodgeball growing up. Who were your teachers?
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Mary Dawkins : Mrs. Groess, Ms Wheeler, Miss Stamper, so many of them. Mr. Fine. I couldn't think of all the teachers' names.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Are you still in touch with the teachers, or?
Mary Dawkins : I see Mrs. Groess often.
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Mary Dawkins : Betty Groess?
Mary Dawkins : Betty Groess, yeah. And I see Miss Stamper.
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Shelia Montague Parker: What about your classmates, are you still in contact with your classmates?
Mary Dawkins : Yes, yes, yes, the ones that's here. Amis Bean, Gertrude Willett.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Did you attend church as a child?
Mary Dawkins : Yes.
Shelia Montague Parker: Which church did you attend?
Mary Dawkins : St John's.
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Shelia Montague Parker: And who's the pastor for St John's?
Mary Dawkins : When I was a child?
Shelia Montague Parker: Yes.
Mary Dawkins : Reverend Bole.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Reverend Bole? What church do you attend now?
Mary Dawkins : St John's.
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Shelia Montague Parker: And your pastor now?
Mary Dawkins : Reverend Naté.
Shelia Montague Parker: Naté? And are you in any activities for church, are you in any of the organizations?
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Mary Dawkins : Yes: choir member, worship committee, used to be an usher, used to be on the membership committee.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: As a child, what organizations were you in, in church?
MARY DAWKINS: Mostly Sunday School, now it's just -
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Why, when you first left home, um, why did you leave home, and what area did you go to - out of the area or somewhere near, um, your home in which you grew up in?
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MARY DAWKINS: It was near home, I was married.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Is this where you moved to when you--?
MARY DAWKINS: Yes.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Do you have, you said you were married, what was your husband's name?
MARY DAWKINS: George.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: George. Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: And how many children do you have?
MARY DAWKINS: Five.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: And their names?
MARY DAWKINS: George Jr., Clarisse, Larry, Claudette, and Charlene.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Is your husband from the area?
MARY DAWKINS: Yes.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: What type of work did your husband do?
MARY DAWKINS: Labor.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Your grandmother was a house -
MARY DAWKINS: - wife.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: A housewife? Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: What type of work did your grandfather do?
MARY DAWKINS: Farmer.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: He was a farmer? Did he have his own farm or - ?
MARY DAWKINS: No.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: He worked for someone else?
MARY DAWKINS: Yes.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Who did he work for?
MARY DAWKINS: Parrin. Louis Parrin.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Louis Parrin.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: What did they raise - Was it livestock? Did they, uh, plant tobacco, or - ?
MARY DAWKINS: Tobacco.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: What about your aunts and uncles? Um, Did you know them as a child growing up? Did they live nearby?
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MARY DAWKINS: Uh, my uncles most of us in Baltimore. I had one aunt: Mildred Putt. She lived in the area.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Your grandfather worked for the Parrins. How long did he work for them?
MARY DAWKINS: Um, he worked for the Parrins I guess about, maybe 20 years or more.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Is that the only job he had, farming, or - ?
MARY DAWKINS: And then he farmed for Lore, Rudy Lore.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Is that that same Lore that had the Lore Oyster House?
MARY DAWKINS: It's part of the family.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: What was your first job that you had?
MARY DAWKINS: Um, my first job -- that I had, um, was cooking.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: For whom?
MARY DAWKINS: Trying to cook for the Parrins.
SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: [[laughing]] Okay.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: How much were you paid?
MARY DAWKINS: I guess maybe about -- maybe $5 a week.
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SHEILA MONTAGUE PARKER: Was this a job that you took strictly for - to raise money for you or was it to help supplement the family income?
MARY DAWKINS: No. It was uh -- I lived there and --
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Mary Dawkins : I would go over there and they would give me a little job peeling potatoes or working in the flower garden. Their Parings bought my school clothes.
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They carried me to New York for vacation when I was a child. I was small and I had to stand on a stool and do the dishes.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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Are the Parins still living?
Mary Dawkins : No, they're dead.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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Ok. What other jobs have you had?
Mary Dawkins : Cooking.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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For whom?
Mary Dawkins : For the Parings and then - I left the Parings and then I went to Oyster House in '49 and I worked White Sand cooking.
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I worked up at the forty - up to the route six - route eighty! In Oysters from Lores to then.
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And then I went to the power plant. And I cooked there until I retired.
Shelia Montague Parker: You retired from the power plant?
Mary Dawkins :
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I retired from the power plant but I'm still shucking oysters and clams.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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Ok, and you started shucking oysters in 49'? [telephone interrupts]
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OK, You say you worked for Lores, how long did you work for them?
Mary Dawkins : I worked for Lore, I started working for Lore around - in the 60's or 70's.
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And I worked there until Lore went out of business. And then I went in cooking.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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For whom?
Mary Dawkins : For Frying Pan, White Sand, and then to the plant. And when I finished at the plant, I went back into oysters at Denty.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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Who owned Lore's?
Mary Dawkins :
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Lore owned it himself.
Shelia Montague Parker: What's his first name?
Mary Dawkins : Joe Lore.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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And you started at Denton, in what year?
Mary Dawkins : '49.
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Was this just to supplement your income, or was this your regular job?
Mary Dawkins :
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It was my regular job at that time. It was only part time work from September to March, and then I was in White Sand cooking until the Oyster House opened up again.
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Then I went back September to March, I think.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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When you first started with Denton, who was the owner?
Mary Dawkins : Warren Denton.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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And when you went back the second time? Was it still Denton or was it under new management?
Mary Dawkins : Under new management.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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And who was the new manager?
Mary Dawkins : Normon Durell.
Shelia Montague Parker: Durell, ok.
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How did you learn how to shuck oysters? Who taught you how to shuck oysters?
Mary Dawkins : Some of the old shuckers. Lot Door, Harrion, and Berndeen Bean, I watched him shuck.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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How long did it take you to get the hang of it, to catch on?
Mary Dawkins :
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I'd say quite a while. Maybe a month, then I got to shuck like everyone else.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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Who first told you about shucking oysters? How did you learn about it?
Mary Dawkins :
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Well I grew right up with the Oyster House right down below me. Soller's Oyster House. When I was a child going to school, that Oyster House was open and I used to meet the workers going and coming, when I was going to school.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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How many oyster house is there in the area?
Mary Dawkins : There's only one.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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And when you first started, how many was there?
Mary Dawkins : There was two.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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What had you heard about the Oyster House before you started there?
Mary Dawkins :
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I heard that it, I could make more money than I could working for the Parins cooking.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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Is there a difference on how the owners treat the women opposed to the men or is there no difference?
Mary Dawkins :
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No difference.
Shelia Montague Parker: [[clearing throat]] Excuse me. What about the hourly wages, is it the same for women and men?
Mary Dawkins :
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Yes.
Shelia Montague Parker: The workers, what is their racial makeup?
Mary Dawkins :
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Now it. First it was all black. We may had, maybe but three or four white. When I first started there was a hundred oyster shuckers, and then as the years went by, they got all black, and now it is mostly Mexicans.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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What is it like working with the Mexicans?
Mary Dawkins :
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Fine. I just learned to speak their language.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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So can you understand what they're saying or - ?
Mary Dawkins :
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Some things, some can speak English, yes. Um, and when I don't understand I'm trying to speak Spanish, you know, 'comprende', I don't know what they're saying.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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OK. So what's the atmosphere like at the Oyster House?
Mary Dawkins : It's very nice. It's nice. It's very nice. We get along together nice.
Shelia Montague Parker:
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Ok. About how many Black workers are there now?
Mary Dawkins : Oh, it may be
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Mary Dawkins : maybe about ten or twelve.
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Shelia Montague Parker: And the Mexicans?
Mary Dawkins : It's about 35 or 40.
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Shelia Montague Parker: What's the age range? When you first started, what was the age range when you were at Lore's?
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Mary Dawkins : When I was at Lore's, shucking now, it wasn't too many young people. I was young and Gladys Gray and maybe a few more.
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Shelia Montague Parker: How old were you?
Mary Dawkins : I was about--my late thirties.
Shelia Montague Parker: So for Denton's what's the age range now?
Mary Dawkins : The age range, the Mexicans are very young. And most that Denton has now is, ah, senior citizens. [[?]] went up in his seventies; my sister-in-law eighty-some.
Shelia Montague Parker: Who's your sister-in-law?
Mary Dawkins : Hannah Sorrelle.
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Mary Dawkins : And Harriet Gray, everybody most is retired. And that's all he has--Doris Groess she's the--and, ah, Molly Grant Brown grandchildren, they all are the youngest that's there.
Shelia Montague Parker: What's their age?
Mary Dawkins : Ah, they should be in their twenties.
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay.
Mary Dawkins : And everybody else is senior citizens. Christine she's not quite a senior citizen yet.
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Shelia Montague Parker: What do you think account for the fact that when you first started it was so many black shuckers as opposed to now, where there was a hundred in the beginning and now it's only about ten or twelve?
Mary Dawkins : Oh the only thing I can put it to, okay I had five children.
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And when school break I would take my kids and watch those and let them see how the money was made.
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I let them worked on a farm let them see, let them see how the money was made. And I had no problem with my kids going to college because they weren't going to shuck oysters and they weren't going to farm.
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I carried them in the kitchen. Some was cooks and some was waitresses and they was not gonna do that. And I consider all our young people have left the county.
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I have one son in this county, that's all, and he's a [[?]] all the rest is college graduates.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. At Denton's now, what's the relationship between Norman Derelle and the workers?
Mary Dawkins : Nice. Get on very good. Yes.
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Shelia Montague Parker: What's your hours for work?
Mary Dawkins : Now we are going to work at 7 and we may work until 10 or 11, four or five hours a day. It's part-time work.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Why is it part-time work?
Mary Dawkins : Well, the oyster season's just about out. We're shucking clams, that season will be coming in full. And then he'll start the crab picking. I don't pick crabs.
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Shelia Montague Parker: So you only work four hours a day and you shuck clams?
Mary Dawkins : I'm shucking clams right now.
Shelia Montague Parker: Is everybody shucking clams?
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Mary Dawkins : No, it's a few shucking oysters.
Shelia Montague Parker: So if this is now the clam season what happens to those who shuck oysters?
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Mary Dawkins : They'll be shucking crabs. And the Mexicans will go in the crabhouse. In the morning they come in, they'll have to shuck the clams and they they go the crabs, they work more hours. They work from, they was working from 5 to 3, something like that. But we don't work that long.
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Shelia Montague Parker: 5 to 3? So they will start off with the oysters or the clams then go into the crabs--.
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Mary Dawkins : Okay, he has maybe about four houses with Mexicans. Certain houses will shuck clams in the morning, maybe when we finish the clams they'll go on to wash, er, on to crabs.
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The Mexicans, by they coming so far, they mostly work full time.
Shelia Montague Parker: Where do they live, the Mexicans?
Mary Dawkins : He has hands with five houses over there with them, in a trailer.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Is that where Denton's is?
Mary Dawkins : Yes.
Shelia Montague Parker: How do they get to the oyster house?
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Mary Dawkins : He has transportation, he carries them..
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Shelia Montague Parker: How--what's your work pace? How fast are you?
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Mary Dawkins : Oh I can do pretty good. Not as good as I used to years ago when I could go in there and shuck myself twenty gallons of oysters. We weren't making no money then.
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Everything is changing, oysters has gotten small. But I make my money in clams. I can go in there and make myself a hundred or more dollars in maybe five or six hours. Sometimes they clams you're looking at is twenty or more dollars a hour.
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Shelia Montague Parker: What's the difference in the price for the clams and the oysters?
Mary Dawkins : It's no different because we get a dollar a pound for both.
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Shelia Montague Parker: So why is it that you make more for the clams?
Mary Dawkins : Clams are easier.
Shelia Montague Parker: Easier? Okay. What changes have you seen come about since you first started and now? What changes over the years?
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Mary Dawkins : There's been a lot of changes because the oysters are different from it was years ago.
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Shelia Montague Parker: How are they different?
Mary Dawkins : We could shuck counts. We had those, had big oysters. Now everything is changed. There's not as many oysters. Everything is smaller. It's too much, ah. The oysters died out, I think. And the clams we're getting so many of them we're not giving them time to grow.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Who's the fastest shucker?
Mary Dawkins : The fastest shucker there now, Perry Gray, is a good shucker. And the Mexicans. The Mexicans that's come in they're faster in clams too, some of them, yeah.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Who taught them how to shuck oysters or clams?
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Mary Dawkins : Well, Norman told them and then after he learned one, and as the groups come in, one of those girls taught the other, to show them how to do it.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. How many women is at the oyster house and how many men?
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Mary Dawkins : We have, ah, we have four men shucking oysters and everybody else is women.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Four men, and that's--
Mary Dawkins : You got Bill Gay, Harry Gray, Budsey Boyne and the Barnes boy, and Baby Joe, five men. Everybody else is women in that oyster house that's working.
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. What tools do you usually use for shucking oysters and what do you wear?
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Mary Dawkins : Okay well I have to have stall--things stalled on my left hand, a glove on my right, and a knife and a apron.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. How do you--how do you deal with the wetness, the dampness, is that a problem for you?
Mary Dawkins : No. We have boots on.
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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Why has the hours changed?
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Mary Dawkins : Well the hours changed because there are not--seafood is not as plentiful as it used to be years ago.
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When we came home we went to work at 5 o'clock in the morning and worked until 2, come home and have dinner and around 9 o'clock go back to work at 9 o'clock at night. That's when the oyster was plentiful and we had boats coming in. Hundreds of bushels of oysters piled up. But now it's not like that. Everything is brought in by truck. Times change.
00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:50.000
Shelia Montague Parker: When you first started how did you get your oysters, did you have to go and get them out of basket or someone bring them to you?
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.000
Mary Dawkins : Someone brought them to us and put them on the table.
00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:03.000
Shelia Montague Parker: And now, do you still have that same system?
Mary Dawkins : Now we have equipments going through and all you have to do is empty the basket as it get to you.
00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:15.000
Shelia Montague Parker: And the weighing process, how is that done?
Mary Dawkins : When I first started they were skimmed by the gallon, now they're by the pound.
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:31.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Who keeps count of your time? Is that you or is there someone else that--?
Mary Dawkins : Well I keep count of my time and the boss keep count of my time. We write down every bucket we get, what the price of everything.
00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:39.000
Shelia Montague Parker: The person that keeps count of your time, day hands?
Mary Dawkins : Yes.
00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:42.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Are they day hands there black or white?
00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:48.000
Mary Dawkins : They're Mexicans.
Shelia Montague Parker: The day hands are also Mexicans?
Mary Dawkins : All hands are Mexicans.
00:21:48.000 --> 00:22:16.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay [[laughs]]. Uh--the Mex--since there's so many Mexican workers, ah, were--. for the Mexicans, what are--I mean, they live--I know he rents them a house, do they come there a certain time of the year and then go back or do they just stay all the time?
00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:26.000
Mary Dawkins : They come a certain time of year. The oyster shuckers will come in around September and they will be leaving the last of April.
00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:39.000
That's the oyster shuckers. The clam shuckers has come in, they came in in April and they will be leaving some time 'round October or November.
00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:59.000
Then we have another bunch are coming in, I'd say around May or June, crab pickers. And they will leave some where around December. They only can stay a certain--they have to go back a certain time.
00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:04.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. That's interesting, I didn't know that. Do you have other family members that work at the oyster house?
00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:21.000
Mary Dawkins : No.
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. When you work, how is the environment, do you, is it like a family atmosphere? Do you all talk or sing or, how do you relate to each other? Or you just do your work and that's it?
00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:31.000
Mary Dawkins : Oh no, we talk, we joke. I shuck beside Doris, we carry on all day. Yes!
Shelia Montague Parker: [[laughs]] I know Doris, she probably do! [[laughs]]
00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:33.000
Mary Dawkins : Oh, Doris and I have a good time!
00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:40.980
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Gosh!
Mary Dawkins : Doris is my husband's cousin.
Shelia Montague Parker: Oh okay.
00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:48.000
[[background television and fan noise]]
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay the faster shucker is, um, Harry Grey.
00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:54.000
Mary Dawkins : Yeah, Christina is a good clam shucker. She's fast. Doris is fast. We all do pretty good.
00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:05.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. The age range, now, um. And in talking to Doris I know Doris is 52. Is she the youngest shucker?
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:13.000
Mary Dawkins : Uh, no, uh, Molly Brown's grandkids, uh what are those kids' names? I forgot their names. They are the youngest ones in there.
00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:19.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. I noticed that there is very few young people, maybe two, three, at the most--
00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:20.000
Mary Dawkins : Yeah.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:28.000
Shelia Montague Parker: How do you see the oyster house in a few years since the shuckers are not, there's not a lot of young people coming in?
00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:41.000
Mary Dawkins : I see the oyster house in a few years, nothing but Mexicans. Because, um, all the oyster shuckers are old. There's no young oyster shuckers.
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:51.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Okay. Do you, um, ever enter into competitions? Is there an oyster-shucking competition each year?
00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:53.000
Mary Dawkins : No.
00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:54.000
Shelia Montague Parker: You don't enter?
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:55.000
Mary Dawkins : Mm-mm [[negative]]. No.
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:57.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Any of your coworkers that you know?
00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:04.000
Mary Dawkins : Ruth, uh, Smith did one year. She entered. Conroy Butler. He entered the contest.
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.000
00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:14.000
Mary Dawkins : I think that is all I can remember that entered the contest. They wanted me to enter, but I would cook-- I was doing restaurant work then.
00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:18.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Did most of your coworkers live in the area?
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:19.000
00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.000
Mary Dawkins : Yes, right over here in Oliver Creek.
00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:32.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Since there is sort of like a family atmosphere, do you and the other workers socialize outside of work?
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:39.000
Mary Dawkins : Oh yes. Some of the oyster shuckers are my choir members, we sing together.
00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:40.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay, who are they?
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:41.000
Mary Dawkins : Mabel Clark.
00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:45.000
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:52.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Oh. Uh, are you with any organizations out there, like a union or trade association?
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.770
Mary Dawkins : The only organization I belong to is the Ferry Alarm Auxiliary Fire Department.
00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:33.000
Mary Dawkins : [[??]]
Shelia Montague Parker: That's not part of the oysterhouse--?
Mary Dawkins : No, that's by our fire department.
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. And what do you like most about shucking oysters?
Mary Dawkins : Uh, there is no clock to punch, for one thing. We work at our own speed. If the oyster's good, we can make money. If they're bad, we shuck 'em all and come home. You know, it's not a--it's a part-time work, it does not really have to be there.
00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:40.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Is that your only job, shucking oysters?
Mary Dawkins : Yes, because I'm retired. I'm 69 years old.
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:51.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. And what do you like least about shucking oysters?
Mary Dawkins : Small oysters! [[they laugh]]
Shelia Montague Parker: Small oysters, huh?
00:26:51.000 --> 00:27:14.000
How has, uh, what changes have you seen that has bettered the conditions of shucking oysters? I mean, is there, when you first started was there a conveyor belt, or, and do you have that now?
00:27:14.000 --> 00:28:10.000
Mary Dawkins : Uh, a change--it does not have to have men putting oysters on tables for you, you have your oysters coming round in baskets all you do--that's very convenient. And you get paid for your pounds. The buckets can't get piled up a gallon. You gonna get paid for what you care for.
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. And when other people ask you about what you do for a living, what did you used to tell them, and what did they used to ask about your work, about your job?
Mary Dawkins : I work at a seafood plant.
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Do you consider it hard work, or is it ?
Mary Dawkins : Oyster shucking is hard work, it's very hard. You're standing on your feet, it's hard. But shucking clams I can sit, make all the money I want sitting down.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:29:24.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Do you take a break at a certain period or do you just shuck straight for four hours, or--and then go home or?
Mary Dawkins : It's up to you. If you want to walk around and talk and entertain, you can do that, nobody's pushing you. You working for what you do, you get paid for what you do.
Shelia Montague Parker: How has working shucking oysters benefit your family? You and your family?
Mary Dawkins : Well it benefit my family years ago, when I had kids going to college, I had two graduate from [[Booie?]] State, one from RETTS Electronic in Baltimore.
Shelia Montague Parker: Repps?
Mary Dawkins : RETT. RETTS. And another one from Morgan, and then she went and got her Master's at [[Baldmen?]] University. Shucking oysters has helped me to educate my kids. In a way, my husband, he was a union man, he made good money. And the money I made I could run the house and protect his money. And that's how I put my kids through school.
00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:30.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. What would you like for people to know about shucking oysters?
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:45.110
Mary Dawkins : Well, if they can't find anything else to do, it is a nice part-time job for people, young people that want something. It's a nice part-time job. A young boss.
00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:53.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay.
Mary Dawkins : Years ago, we had transportation, we didn't have to worry about getting there, it was a bus to take us.
00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:58.000
Shelia Montague Parker: And now everyone has to drive?
Mary Dawkins : Everyone drive, yeah.
00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:05.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Tell me a little bit more about your background, your family, growing up.
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:20.000
Mary Dawkins : Okay, my grandmother raised me. And grandfather. My aunt Mildred, I was raised up with her as a sister.
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:47.000
And then Harold Chu. She adopted him. We were a happy family. Mildred, she got married and she had 15 kids and moved away. And I stayed there until I got married. And I moved away. But we all was very close. We were in walking distance.
00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:55.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. What's one of your fondest memory of your grandmother, grandfather, and how did they meet, did they--?
00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:03.000
Mary Dawkins : I'm pretty sure my grandmother and grandfather probably grew up in the same neighborhood, just like my husband and I went to school together.
00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:31.000
Shelia Montague Parker: And?
Mary Dawkins : She was very loving. Grandmothers, there is no love no greater than a grandparent's love. And I can remember sitting on my grandmother's lap, a big girl, and how my grandmother loved me and nourished me. Grandmother's baby, I was.
00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:39.000
Shelia Montague Parker: What about that house what you grew up in, what do you remember most about that?
00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:59.000
Mary Dawkins : Mostly about the house I grew up in? Well my mother upstairs in the hallway and how I used to be so fidgie, and my aunts and things would always be want to spank me and grandma didn't let them do it. I was grandma baby.
00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:05.000
Shelia Montague Parker: [[laughs]] When you got sick, what, was there any special remedies that your grandmother would have?
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:22.000
Mary Dawkins : If I got a cold there was something called horehound tea [[both laugh]] and if our kids had worms they'd give them little spurts of turpentine! [[laughs]] Nobody does that anymore. Course we didn't had to go to doctor, grandma took care of us.
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:26.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay.
Mary Dawkins : Holly leaves, made holly tea and we drank that.
00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:34.970
Shelia Montague Parker: Are you still in touch with your sisters and brothers today?
Mary Dawkins : Yes.
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:52.000
Shelia Montague Parker: PARKER: What, do you have any type of family memorabilia, heirlooms, that you keep today, something that you consider valuable?
00:32:52.000 --> 00:33:07.000
DAWKINS: Only thing that I have ah, is dolls that my mother gave me. And a beautiful quilt that she got for me. I keeps that.
00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:34.000
Shelia Montague Parker: For in your oyster shucking, what, what to you is the most, I won't say 'valuable', what's most important to you as far as shucking oysters, whether you, I mean, what is the one thing that you hold onto, the one thing that give you the speed, as far as shucking oysters?
00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:48.000
Mary Dawkins : What I hold onto?
Shelia Montague Parker: Yeah. [[they laugh]]
Shelia Montague Parker: Nothing that's precious to you as far as, memorable to you, as far as shucking oysters?
00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:57.000
Mary Dawkins : I just shuck oysters. Give me a nice sharp knife and I can shuck the oysters.
Shelia Montague Parker: Oh your knife!
00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:03.000
Mary Dawkins : Yes.
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Do you have family photos?
Mary Dawkins : Some.
00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:09.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. [[tape clicks out and a sound of shuffled papers]]
00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:16.000
Yeah.
Shelia Montague Parker: I heard she's pretty fast!
Mary Dawkins : Oh yes.
Shelia Montague Parker: Do you have any other, besides the paper?
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:26.000
Mary Dawkins : I got a video of those, those are the only things I have are those papers
Shelia Montague Parker: You have several of these?
Mary Dawkins : I brought a whole bunch of them. My kids got 'em but I told them "keep them ugly things away". They said I look like some old bunge woman.
00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:27.000
00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:33.000
[[laughter]]
Mary Dawkins : That's all I have in the Oyster House. There's some more oyster shuckers in there too.
00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:53.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Oh, OK
Mary Dawkins : On page 16. That way too many and I'll go in there and um, in this booklet a little bit. She come in and interviewed me there and [[?]]. Here you go, oyster shuckers. Who is there? That's my sister-in-law, Hannah. That's Ivy Sanders. Yeah, We [[?]]. Yeah.
00:34:53.000 --> 00:35:05.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Do know the guys who, who, ah. How did they bring the oysters in? Where did they get them from?
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:21.000
Mary Dawkins : by truck
Shelia Montague Parker: From where?
Mary Dawkins : Eastern Shore mostly
Shelia Montague Parker: Eastern shore. OK. And when they, you guys shucked the oysters, and the drivers that take them out, are they taken to certain seafood houses, or
00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:29.000
Mary Dawkins : yeah, certain markets. Oh, mostly Eastern shore, that's where they take them all. New York and they take them all over the place
00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:35.000
Shelia Montague Parker: To New York. Who usually packed the oysters?
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:54.000
Mary Dawkins : Packs them - the Mexicans
Shelia Montague Parker: The Mexicans? [[tape noise]] Do you think that he would have a problem with the Mexicans? I've talked to Norman Durrell and I told them about the project. Do you think he would have a problem with the Mexicans, or the Mexicans would have a problem being interviewed?
00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:05.710
Mary Dawkins : You would have to have an interpreter
Shelia Montague Parker: None of them speak English?
Mary Dawkins : Very little. They're not, very little English they speak.
00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:19.000
Shelia Montague Parker: So, actually I know you don't know their rent, how much they paid for rent, but, they rent a house from him?
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:39.000
Mary Dawkins : Uh, I think the house was owned by someone else. He rent 'em [[inaudible]]
Shelia Montague Parker: no, not this part. Yeah, I sort of wondered about that. I know there's one house by the parsonage.
00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:59.000
Mary Dawkins : Yeah, and he take, I guess, 10-12 and put them in that house for rent.
Shelia Montague Parker: I know there's a lot because, we had
Mary Dawkins : Absolutely, there was a lot. He made a lot of money because [[inaudible]]
00:36:59.000 --> 00:37:05.000
Shelia Montague Parker: He lives at Burtonsville Road.
Mary Dawkins : Yeah, right down below the store. Right down below the store, at Ma & Pop's
Shelia Montague Parker: That yellow house is his?
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:28.000
Mary Dawkins : Yeah. And he has a trailer up there that he rents to them too. I think the rent that he charges them must be the gas and retainer back and forth to work. He takes them people and puts them in the house, even at $30, that's $300 week. But they work.
00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:39.000
Shelia Montague Parker: So they leave from the oyster house and go straight to the crab house
Mary Dawkins : Yeah, yeah, it's right there. All right in the same building.
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:51.000
Shelia Montague Parker: How did you deal with the... When I went there, the floors were so wet and... Did that affect you all healthwise?
00:37:51.000 --> 00:38:00.000
Mary Dawkins : Hmmm. Well, there are a few [[padmen?]] that got arthritis.
Shelia Montague Parker: Yeah, that's [[?]] I'll say it
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:13.000
Mary Dawkins : There's a lot of people that had never done it that are worse off then we are. My sister-in-law over there, she is 80..., she was born in 1916, she is 81, 82? 1916 .. she's 81, I guess.
00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:22.610
And she doesn't have no arthritis, she been oyster shucking for years. So, it's not the Oyster House, it's the individuals health, you know that
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:49.000
Shelia Montague Parker: So you said your husband's related to my mother-in-law?
Mary Dawkins : Oh yeah, his father and your mother-in-law is first cousins. Uh, no, his father and your mother-in-law's mother were sisters and brothers. Yeah, because my husband and your Momma should be first cousins.
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:54.000
Shelia Montague Parker: How long have you been married?
Mary Dawkins : Oh, I been married 45 years, Saturday.
00:38:54.000 --> 00:39:18.000
Shelia Montague Parker: The next time I come back - oh, I'm supposed to put this on paper. I'll just have to act as if it's on paper The next time I come back, can I, can I, make sure I have, can I take a picture of you, and-- did you-- at the house?
Mary Dawkins : Yeah. Mm-hmm [[affirmative]]
00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:26.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. I also wanted to do a couple of pictures at the Oyster House with some of the workers there.
Mary Dawkins : Ok.
00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:30.000
Shelia Montague Parker: I've mentioned that to him also.
Mary Dawkins : When you gonna do that?
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:35.000
Mary Dawkins : I'm going down tomorrow morning, actually
Mary Dawkins : Well I'll be there looking like a tramp. [[laughter]]
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:47.496
Shelia Montague Parker: I've got to get my suit. I'm trying to make sure...
Mary Dawkins : What time you going to get there tomorrow?
