Behind the Apron Project: Ruth Smith Interview,1997, Part 2

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay, let me ask you again.

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Mrs. Smith, where were you born?
Ruth Smith: In Huntingtown.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Is this where you grew up at?
Ruth Smith: Yeah, basically.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Describe the home in which you grew up in.

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Ruth Smith: Whew, madhouse.

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Shelia Montague Parker: [[laughter and clap]] Madhouse? [[laughter]]
Ruth Smith: [[laughter]] Yes.

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Shelia Montague Parker: How many sisters and brothers did you have?

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Ruth Smith: All together was 19 of us.
Shelia Montague Parker: 19? Okay.

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Ah, is your family still living? Sisters and brothers?

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Ruth Smith: Um, I have 3 brothers living, and,
[SILENCE] 4 sisters.

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Shelia Montague Parker: 4 sisters? What about your mother and father? — Are they still living?
Ruth Smith: —They passed. They passed.—
Shelia Montague Parker: They passed.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Your family home: Is there any members that's still living in your family home now?
Ruth Smith: No.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Where is your sisters and brothers now? Are they still in the county?
Ruth Smith: Um, two of us is. The others lived in, ah, as you recall, [[inaudible]] up around Severin.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Describe some of the things that your sisters and brothers and you would do together.
Ruth Smith: Everything.

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Shelia Montague Parker: For example?
Ruth Smith: Well, we didn't have too mush leisure time, I tell you. Um, you know, we played ball together. Well, I had one brother. We shucked oysters together.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Uh, how would your family celebrate the holidays? What are some of the things that you would do?
Ruth Smith: Oh just a normal family dinner 'n' chatting.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Name something that you and your family would do on Sundays as children.
Ruth Smith: Well, we didn't do too much together on Sundays, no more than a normal, during the week, you know, we just stayed together.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Well, what are some of the special places that you would like to play as a child?
Ruth Smith: Always at my cousin's house.
Shelia Montague Parker: At your cousin's home? Okay.

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Shelia Montague Parker: What are some of your favorite childhood stories? Can you remember stories that you were told as a child?

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Ruth Smith: I believe I can't.

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Shelia Montague Parker: What about, um-- What activities, then, did your family do? What was the kitchen used for besides eating? Was it a gathering place for folks to come to talk, or families to just get together and meet? What are some of the things you would do as a child in the kitchen?

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Ruth Smith: Well, like every so often, I mean, we didn't have companies to come in. My dad would sit around and joke around with us and play around with us. That's basically it.

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Shelia Montague Parker: What were some of your favorite things that you would like to do, that you uh, activities that you did with your mother and father?

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Ruth Smith: Uh, growing up with?

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Shelia Montague Parker: Some of the things that you would do.

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Ruth Smith: Nothing.
Shelia Montague Parker: Nothing?
Ruth Smith: Um-hmm.

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Shelia Montague Parker: No? Okay, what to you, growing up, was one of your favorite dinners, maybe the meals you mom would prepare for the family?

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Ruth Smith: Sunday, Sundays. [[laughter]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: So on Sundays, what you have?

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Ruth Smith: Oh, we would have the, back then I'd call it the basic dinner. We would have like jerky min, you know, homegrown vegetables and stuff like that.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Who were some of your friends growing up in the neighborhood or school or--?

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Ruth Smith: We actually didn't have any because we basically stuck together. And I wasn't going to, like, on Sundays to our cousins' house to play. That was the life we had.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay, are there any family traditions that you carry out today that you mom did when you were growing up?
Ruth Smith: No. [[chuckles]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: No? Okay, do you have any treasured memories of your family, things that particularly stand out with you, and growing up with your mom and dad and sisters and brothers?

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Ruth Smith: No, not really. I can't recall any.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Any family activities?
Ruth Smith: We didn't have any activities, no absolutely special.

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Shelia Montague Parker: What about bedtime rituals, where you told stories at that time or--?
Ruth Smith: No.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Any family medical remedies that you would remember? I mean, if you got sick or colds, was there special remedies that your mom would, uh, do when growing up, or would she take you to the doctor?

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Ruth Smith: I'm going to tell you the truth. We actually didn't have no sickness.
Shelia Montague Parker: Really?
Ruth Smith: It was the strangest thing.
Shelia Montague Parker: Wow.

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Ruth Smith: Like if we got just a little cold, I don't know what she would fix. Mom would fix up something that we'd do next morning. That was it.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay. Tell me a little bit about your mother and father. What type of work did they do?
Ruth Smith: They was farmers.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Farmers? Did they have their own farm, or did they farm for someone else?
Ruth Smith: Farmed for someone else.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Who did they farm for?
Ruth Smith: Oh, dear.

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Ruth Smith: I, one I can remember, his name was Handsome Driscoll—
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay.
Ruth Smith: —that was over on [[Lower Marlboro Bay]].

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay, your mom farmed also, or just your father?
Ruth Smith: The whole family.
Shelia Montague Parker: The whole family? Okay.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Did you live on the farm, or—?
Ruth Smith: Yes.
Shelia Montague Parker: Okay.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Uh, do you, did you know your grandparents, your mother's mother and father, or your father's mother and father?
Ruth Smith: Yeah, I knew my mother's mom and my dad's mother, and slightly my dad's father. Slightly, cause we was little kids when he passed.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Did you live with them, or—
Ruth Smith: No.
Shelia Montague Parker: No.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Could you give me a little bit of information about your grandparents? What were they like?
Ruth Smith: Lovely.
Shelia Montague Parker: Lovely?
Ruth Smith: Lovely. The one thing I liked to do, we used to like to go to both of them's house and eat, and the sports — how do I put it — the sports, you know, activities we just loved to be around them, period.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Tell me a little bit about your mother and father. What were they like? What type of people were they?
Ruth Smith: They were beautiful parents. They was beautiful, lovely parents.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Um, also, um, did you know how your parents met? Did they ever talk about how they—
Ruth Smith: No, they didn't. [[both laugh]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: Okay, what type of family values did your parents instill in you as a child?
Ruth Smith: [[sighs]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: Is there particular things that they wanted you to do or didn't want you to do, as a child, that you can remember?
Ruth Smith: One thing, well, my mother was a person, that she didn't have too much to say. My dad, he was the one.

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Ruth Smith: to be independent, do it for yourself, and just be independent.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Uh, what type of stories did your parents tell you of themselves and their childhood? Can you remember any stories that they would--

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Ruth Smith: No, I can't.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Do you remember any of their friends? Who were some of your neighbors at that time?

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Ruth Smith: Well, oh, back there then, we lived so far apart, and my mom was always home with us, and my dad's friends-I couldn't tell you [[laughter]].

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Can you remember one of your proudest moments in growing up? Something that's stands out outstanding to you? Something you were really excited about and share it with your parents? That your parents were proud of?

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Ruth Smith: No, almost everything was-that we would, me-everything was just--

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok--

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Ruth Smith: Being proud.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Where did you attend school?
[SILENCE]

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Ruth Smith: Mount Hope Elementary School.

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Shelia Montague Parker: And where is Mount Hope?
Ruth Smith: [[??]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Who were some of your teachers?

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Ruth Smith: Oh, one outstanding teacher I had, that was when we was, when we lived in Cheneyville. Her name was Mrs. Toya, but she was [[??]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: How has, as far as you can see, you have children?

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Ruth Smith: One.

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Shelia Montague Parker: One. How has school changed now? How is it different now from when you were in school? What changes have you seen come about?

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Ruth Smith: Awful lot. Discipline, for one.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Mhmm.

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Ruth Smith: And, they don't have that mandate. I mean, from-from the time I was in school, everything's sort of different. You did what you had to do. It's as simple as that.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Mhmm.

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Ruth Smith: You did what you had to do.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Do you belong to any organizations?

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Ruth Smith: [[??]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Which church do you attend?

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Ruth Smith: Well right now, I didn't have a home church. [[??]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: What are some of your hobbies?

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Ruth Smith: Being a [[??]]. I don't have any.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Really? [[laughter]] You don't have any hobbies?

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Ruth Smith: No, no I don't.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok, ok. And, what was your first job at a oyster house?

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Ruth Smith: Shucking oysters.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. What oyster house did you first work at?

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Ruth Smith: Warren Denton. That's the only one I worked at.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. How long did you work there?

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Ruth Smith: I was there about 23 years.

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Shelia Montague Parker: How did you, how did you start working at Warren Denton? How did you get started? Who told you about working there?

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Ruth Smith: Nobody! I needed a job--

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok.

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Ruth Smith: Yeah, and I went there.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Is there any other family members that worked at Denton now or when you were working there?

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Ruth Smith: When I was working there, yeah, I had a brother.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. How many-I'm not really sure how to phrase this, but how many oysters did you shuck a day, how many gallons? It's done according to gallons, right?

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Ruth Smith: Mhmm.

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Shelia Montague Parker: How many did you shuck a day?

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Ruth Smith: Well ok, that's all depend on how the oysters were. Some days, we'd have some very good oysters and some days not. I have shucked as many as-anywhere from 28-30 gallons a day.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. What would be the average amount, if you turned-shucked 28-30 gallons a day, moneywise, how would that-that rank?

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Ruth Smith: Oh, anywhere from, like

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Ruth Smith: Sixty, about sixty-some dollars.
Shelia Montague Parker: A day?
Ruth Smith: A day.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Uh, what's a, what was a routine day like for you? I mean, once you came in, what, what was your day like? What did you do first to get started?

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Ruth Smith: Ok, we had these gallon pails. You had to go in and get those. You had to put water in them, then each one of— everybody had their own spot at the table. And then you put your apron on, and the guys that brings out the oysters from the back room would put the oysters on the table, and the day was started.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Who were some of the faster shuckers at the oyster house?

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Ruth Smith: Oh dear. Um. [[sighs]] [[ Blondel ? ]] Mason was one. [[chuckles]] Well, there was a lot of them. It's hard for me to name them because most of them was really, really fast.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Now, I think you're being modest because from what I understand, you were very fast.

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Ruth Smith: Well after I once learned—
Shelia Montague Parker: [[laughter]]

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Ruth Smith: See, when I started— I went, I was working right beside, um, what was his name? What was this guy named? Good lawd, been so long. Um, I have a picture of the guy, but I just can't [[ ? ]] him. He was a very fast shucker, and shucking oysters, um, if the person working next to you can really, really shuck oysters fast, so this is a really encouraging role and I'm going to try and do this too, and that's how I really got started.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Is it true that you have a number of awards and certificates from, uh, shucking oysters?
Ruth Smith: Mhmm.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Uh, ok, what type of awards and certificates do you have?

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Ruth Smith: Well, the certificate is just a proclamation from the courthouse, um,

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Ruth Smith: —and the awards is what I got when I was going over to Leonardtown over at the, uh, fairgrounds, uh, participating in the contest.
Shelia Montague Parker: Mhmm.

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Ruth Smith: You know, they just came with a plaque and an oyster knife and my name and my time and everything on it.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok, uh. I understand, did you shuck in other areas or do competitions in other areas or states?

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Ruth Smith: Yeah, I went to [[ ? ]] three years straight, 'cause I won it in Leonardtown. I went to [[ ? ]], three years.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. What type of uniform did you have to wear or use in shucking oysters each day? Is there a particular uniform, or what type of equipment did you need?

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Ruth Smith: Well, all we needed was the shucking knife, and we, we had a rubber apron to put on, because on account of the water, the juices, the stuff from the oysters.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Where did you buy your equipment that you needed or the items that you needed for shucking oysters?
Ruth Smith: Uh, Denton Oyster House.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Who runs or owns Denton Oyster House?

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Ruth Smith: Ok, during the time that I was working there, uh, when I first started, it was Warren Denton, and he passed, and his son Charles took over. Uh, several years then, Charles passed, and it's another name there. I haven't been down there since he was there.

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Shelia Montague Parker: When did, uh, you stop shucking oysters?
Ruth Smith: Oh Lord, it's been about, mmm, almost 11 years.

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Shelia Montague Parker: What did you like most about shucking oysters?

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Ruth Smith: The surroundings, the people, and it was like that you wasn't on a job, working. It was just like, a great big family having fun and working.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Uh, what did you dislike about working at the oyster house?

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Ruth Smith: I didn't.

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Ok. Uh,

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Shelia Montague Parker: Describe, uh, as far as your family, growing up, how did, um, the community and changing of the environment, um, affect your family? Um, wars, how did that affect your family?

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Ruth Smith: What, as of having some of the family to go to—
Shelia Montague Parker: —to war, and—
Ruth Smith: None of them ever went.

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Shelia Montague Parker: None of your brothers were in the military?
Ruth Smith: No.

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Shelia Montague Parker: What were some of your favorite hangouts as a child?

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Ruth Smith: A child, teenager, or—?
Shelia Montague Parker: Uh, yes, a teenager.

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Ruth Smith: Oh Lord, what do you know?
Shelia Montague Parker: [[laughter]]
Ruth Smith: [[ ? ]] at the clubs. No particular ones.
Shelia Montague Parker: What sort of clubs?

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Ruth Smith: Um, it was a, [[laughter]]. Now it's, um, it's called, [[ ? ]] Well the place didn't [[ ? ]]. They always called 'Bird in Foot' and 'Duke's'.

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Shelia Montague Parker: OK. [[laughter]] What were some of your favorite childhood sports and games?

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Ruth Smith: We really, I didn't really have any favorite games. I mean, we would play dodgeball and, and a little softball, and that was it. We didn't have too much leisure time really.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Who were some of your, um, idols as a child? Folks that you looked up to?

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Ruth Smith: My Uncle [[ ? ]].
Shelia Montague Parker: His last name is?
Ruth Smith: [[ ? ]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. And why was [[ ? ]]— why was, why did you admire him?
Ruth Smith: He played the piano.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Is he still living?
Ruth Smith: Yes.
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok.
Ruth Smith: And he's still playing piano for us.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Where, for? You're at Carol Weston?
Ruth Smith: Uh, uh-nuh, yeah, I just, you know, visit Carol Weston. My membership was at Brooks.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Oh, you said "us," so do you have a group that you're with?
Ruth Smith: Mhmm.

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Shelia Montague Parker: What's the name of your group?
Ruth Smith: The Wayward Travelers.
Shelia Montague Parker: OK.

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Shelia Montague Parker: How did your family celebrate the holidays?

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Shelia Montague Parker: Is there anything special you did?
Ruth Smith: No, mmm-mmm. The same-old routine as it was another Sunday.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Uh, tell me, um, what other information can you give me in reference to the oyster house? Um, your work there?

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Ruth Smith: [[sighs]]

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Shelia Montague Parker: How did, how did you get your oysters? Is there a conveyor belt? And how did you put the oysters on your box, or how did you do that? And weighing them, um?

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Ruth Smith: Ok, when I first started, they had mens to bring 'em out in, uh, wire baskets on a wheelbarrow and they would throw them up on the table—
Shelia Montague Parker: Mhmm.

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Ruth Smith: And as time went on, they put in, uh, conveyor baskets that rolls around the house over the tables. And when you needed oysters, you just reach up and tilt one of the baskets and dump 'em down on the table. So when I left, that's what, that's the way it was.
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok.

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Ruth Smith: And you have the conveyor belts, you have, um, a hole cut in the table and your, and your shells, you [[ ? ]] 'em in this hole and there's a conveyor belt under the table that takes 'em outside.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Did you have to lift your buckets, uh, to a skimmer, or—
Ruth Smith: Mhmm.

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Shelia Montague Parker: Even the women had to lift the buckets also?
Ruth Smith: Yes.
Shelia Montague Parker: Oh—

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Ruth Smith: After you get your bucket full. Then you take them up to the, like you said, the skimmer window and dump them on this big thing that drains the water from 'em. Then they rakes them off there into another gallon container, and then they had a window, they had a, something like a chalkboard, where they would put your, your balance up.
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok.

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Ruth Smith: They had it so you could see it from the side of the window you were.

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Shelia Montague Parker: What was the, um, racial makeup when you were there? Was it all black, black and white, or,or Mexicans, or—?
Ruth Smith: No, it was all black shuckers.
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok.

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Ruth Smith: And in the skimmer part, in the skimmer room, it was all white people.
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok.

00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:39.000
Shelia Montague Parker: So the skimmer room, is that what you call it? I know there's something called day hands, are they considered day hands, or what are day hands? [[silence]]

00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:43.000
Shelia Montague Parker: No? Ok. Where do you work now?
Ruth Smith: Ben Franklin.

00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:48.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Ben Franklin's. How long have you worked there?
Ruth Smith: It has been 10 years, the first week in August.

00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:55.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. Tell me about your family. You have one child?
Ruth Smith: One son.
Shelia Montague Parker: Son. And your son?

00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:06.000
Ruth Smith: Freddy. He's 49. [[ ? ]]
Shelia Montague Parker: [[laughs]] Ok.

00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:13.000
Ruth Smith: Ok, I have 1 son, I have 6 grandchildren—
Shelia Montague Parker: Mhmm.

00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:15.000
Ruth Smith: And I have 7 great-grands.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:18.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Oh wow! And your husband?

00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:27.000
Ruth Smith: I've been a widow for, gee whiz, uh, 20, probably 30-some years.

00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:29.000
Shelia Montague Parker: And his name?
Ruth Smith: Whose?

00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:31.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Your husband's name.
Ruth Smith: Bernard Smith.

00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:55.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok, ok. Is there anything else that, uh, you can tell me in reference to the oyster house or your family? Uh, anything, anything you'd like folks to know about you and your community? Who are some of the folks in the community that you, uh, were some of the folks, uh, in the community you grew up in who are some of your neighbors now?

00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:34.270
Ruth Smith: Well, I've been living all to my self so long. In fact, I've only been here, a year July. I was living over on, uh, Henry Hutchins Road right off of the Sixes Road and I [[ ? ]] about twenty-some years, and they said [[ ? ]] over there because everybody over there was white, which was the, the Hutchins family, the Hutchins and their [[ ? ]]. They was there the whole time, you know, when I was over there, and here,

00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:46.000
Ruth Smith: My cousin [[ ? ]] Parker live here, his son lives here. [[ ? Hearst ]] which is my landlord live right, just across the field.

00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:53.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Uh, what church did you attend when you were growing up?
Ruth Smith: Uh, Patuxent.
Shelia Montague Parker: Patuxent.

00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:59.000
Shelia Montague Parker: You were once a member at Brooks Church—
Ruth Smith: Mmm.
Shelia Montague Parker: —was that as you got older, or your mom and dad switched to Brooks Church?

00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:07.000
Ruth Smith: No, as I got older, and I moved down in this area. So I moved my membership from Patuxent to Brooks.

00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:18.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Who was the minister at Patuxent when you attend Patuxent?
Ruth Smith: Lord have mercy. Uh, Reverend Davis.

00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:27.000
Shelia Montague Parker: And at Brooks, was that Reverend Collins?
Ruth Smith: Reverend Collins.
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. [[break in recording]]

00:25:27.000 --> 00:26:07.000
Ruth Smith: I beat him. I don't feel bad. And, 'cause he won it the first year he went to [[ Arlen ? ]]. He won it in [[ Arlen ? ]]. And he came back here. That second year, Conroy [[ ? ]] won it over him, then they both went to [[ Arlen ? ]]. The year, the third year, I had gotten into the contest, and I beat him, and then I went. [[ So, I was good.]] For three years straight, I won it and went to [[ Arlen ? ]].

00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:13.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Was it, uh, a monetary prize from winning, or were you given awards?

00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:38.990
Ruth Smith: Ok, from here, uh, it was a, a 500 dollar cash. And a week, expenses paid. And I didn't win anything in [[ Arlen ? ]] because I lost by 5 seconds, and, uh, I got,

00:26:42.000 --> 00:27:19.000
Ruth Smith: —this crystal, this big crystal, which my granddaughter broke. And the second year, I got, give me a sec [[gets out of chair?]] [[unintelligible]] But my first one's my granddaughter's when she was little, she's—

00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:24.000
Shelia Montague Parker: What was it like in [[ Arlen ? ]], and how many was competing in the contest?

00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:35.000
Ruth Smith: It was, uh, about six countries. It was six countries was participating.

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:45.000
Shelia Montague Parker: How many persons?
Ruth Smith: Six.
Shelia Montague Parker: Six, ok. One [[ ? ]] in each country. [[rustling]]

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Do they still have this contest?

00:27:49.000 --> 00:28:07.000
Ruth Smith: I-I really don't know, because I haven't been over there for about 3, about 3, 4 years. Because I usually go over there every-every October, but I didn't-I haven't been over there for a while.

00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:41.000
Because the last time I was in Arlen, I told the Rotary Club people, I said I'm not going back because we had problems with the plane. When we got ready to leave that following Sunday morning, and they worked on that plane for four hours before and put us on that same plane and sent us back, so I told them, I said, this is the end of me. When I get back, don't bother me, I said, I'm giving up my championship.

00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:55.170
Which, little did I know, after I gave it up, and the girl from, uh, Virginia won it, then the Rotary men gon' tell me that I could have retired from my championship undefeated.

00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:05.000
Ruth Smith: Which upset me.
Shelia Montague Parker: —Yes.
Ruth Smith: —but you know. So I just dropped out [[ ? ]] when my brother passed. I couldn't care.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:10.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Oh. In the, um, competitions in St. Leonard's, how many usually entered?

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:13.000
Ruth Smith: In St. Mary's?
Shelia Montague Parker: St. Mary's.

00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:46.000
Ruth Smith: They [[ will/would ?]] have about, at least about 10, because they would start it on a Saturday. They would start the shucking contest on a Saturday and the winners from Saturday -- the finals was on Sunday -- and then they would shuck, the finals on Sunday would shuck against the winners of the year before.
Shelia Montague Parker: OK.
Ruth Smith: You know, and that's the way it went.

00:29:46.000 --> 00:30:07.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Um, how many workers were there usually at the oyster house, let's go back to that. About how many shuckers were there on an average day?
Ruth Smith: Probably about 30 or 40 workers.

00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:16.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Can-do you remember any other besides, I know you mention Blondele as Blondele Mason. Uh, and your brother's name was—
Ruth Smith: Cornelius [[ ? ]].

00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:24.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Cornelius. And um, Butler, um—
Ruth Smith: Conroy Butler.
Shelia Montague Parker: Conroy Butler.

00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:35.000
Ruth Smith: Oh, I remember a lot of 'em because they was Mabel [[ ? ]], Lance [[ ? ]], [[ ? ]] Mason, um, I bas-I knew just about all of them that worked there, you know.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Did you basically work all the way through, or did you stop for breaks, or—?

00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:53.000
Ruth Smith: Yeah, we stopped for breaks and lunches and stuff. And we just had a good time, I mean, just about all day long we would just work and to sing hymns. We was just-it was beautiful.

00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:57.000
Shelia Montague Parker: You sang hymns as you worked? What are some of the hymns that you would sing?

00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:07.000
Ruth Smith: Oh, my Lord. Whatever anybody started — Whatever anybody started we'd go—
Shelia Montague Parker: —You had church while you were working?
Ruth Smith: Mhmm. Yes, yes. It was really nice.

00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:13.000
Ruth Smith: But I left the oyster house because I was beginning to get arthritis in my shoulder.
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok.

00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:15.000
Ruth Smith: And see, the place was very wet, you know.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:23.250
Shelia Montague Parker: I wondered about that. I had an opportunity to visit the oyster house a few days ago, and I noticed that the floors are very wet.
Ruth Smith: Yes.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:30.000
Ruth Smith: So that's the reason why I left. It wasn't because I wanted to.
Shelia Montague Parker: OK.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:38.000
Shelia Montague Parker: Did you find that lifting the buckets were a problem?
Ruth Smith: No.
Shelia Montague Parker: No.

00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:50.000
Shelia Montague Parker: OK.
Ruth Smith: —So by then, a little bit, I've got arthritis in my fingers, in my back, in my shoulder, and sometime I feel like I wanna go back.
Shelia Montague Parker: Yeah.
Ruth Smith: But, uh—

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.000
Shelia Montague Parker: What was your hours, your work hours?

00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:22.000
Ruth Smith: Well, normally, it used to be like from 6 to 3, but you could quit anytime you want, you know. And, now this time of year, we used to go in like 'bout 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning and work until 12 o'clock in the day.
Shelia Montague Parker: Wow.

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:27.384
Shelia Montague Parker: Ok. [[recorder clicked off]]