00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:11.000 Pearl Bowser: Identify yourself. Identify yourself. Where you were born, and when. How old you are.
00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:24.000 Lula Adams: I am Lula Bell Adams. The daughter of Mose Adams and Kara Hayes, my mother's maiden name.
00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:30.000 Lula Adams: I didn't say when I was born.
00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:38.000 Lula Adams: April 25th, 1908
00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:45.000 Pearl Bowser: You were born here in-- ? Lula Adams: Yes, Memphis, Tennessee.
00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Pearl Bowser: Were your parents also?
00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:53.000 Lula Adams: My mother and father both were born in Tennessee.
00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.000 Lula Adams: My mother came from Memphis,
00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:02.000 Lula Adams: in the rear of [[?]], what's north, what was north Main Street,
00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:12.000 Lula Adams: and at that time, property owned by a Memphis Bowman.
00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:20.000 Lula Adams: The house that she was born in, it was known as Memphis Bowman's Yard.
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:27.000 Lula Adams: You told me-- And so, do I have to give the date of my mother's birth?
00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.000 Pearl Bowser: Sure, if you want to, sure.
00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:38.000 Lula Adams: Well, my mother was born June 5th; I'll track that back it's correct dates; 1890.
00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.000 Lula Adams: And the day of the week, it was Thursday.
00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:58.000 Lula Adams: My grandmother had pretty good situation, you see.
00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:55.000 Lula Adams: Her mother was born in safer times. In Macon, Georgia.
00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:00.000 Lula Adams: And whoever they belonged to let the house servants children
00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:07.000 Lula Adams: be taught by the teacher of the plantation owners.
00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:13.000 Lula Adams: She learn to read better than just about as well as I can read now.
00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:20.000 Lula Adams: She pointed to her and words that she didn't understand, she could separate them into syllables,
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.000 Lula Adams: and as I got old enough, I could look it up in the dictionary,
00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:30.000 Lula Adams: and she would fix in her own words as to what it meant.
00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:35.000 Lula Adams: I have considered myself to be very fortunate
00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:42.000 Pearl Bowser: Right. Lula Adams: because not only did they wait until my grandfather passed
00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Lula Adams: when my mother went for three months on.
00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:55.000 Lula Adams: [[Dry throat sound]] And my-- And she's the youngest; the last of the Hayes [[Laughing]] family children.
00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:03.000 Pearl Bowser: Hayes was your maiden name? Lula Adams: Huh? Pearl Bowser: Hayes was your maiden name? Louise Spence: [[Cross Talk]] His mother's name-- Lula Adams: No. My mother's maiden name was Hayes,
00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:12.000 Lula Adams: but she wasn't but 3 months old when her father passed.
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:19.000 Lula Adams: So she didn't know anything about him and in later years.
00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:30.000 Lula Adams: We found out that he was born in Huntsville, Alabama, in that section.
00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:36.000 Lula Adams: And they were looking for the heirs of Van Hayes, which was his name.
00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:45.000 Lula Adams: And I was big enough to, you know, know about it because the government
00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:53.000 Lula Adams: was buying up the land that they were fixing to put the power plant in Huntsville.
00:03:53.000 --> 00:04:01.000 Lula Adams: So my grandmother didn't know anything about the family property or nothing, you know,
00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:09.000 Lula Adams: because for some reason he didn't want to be, didn't tell her about it.
00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:15.947 Pearl Bowser: Would you spell that last name for us, Hayes? Lula Adams: HAYES.
00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.000 Pearl Bowser: So you were close to your grandmother?
00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.000 Lula Adams: Huh? Pearl Bowser: You were close to your grandmother?
00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:29.000 Lula Adams: Oh yeah, I was 22 years old when she passed. [[Laughs]] Louise Spence: Oh, that's nice.
00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:34.000 Louise Spence: What did your grandmother do for a living?
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.000 Lula Adams: She did laundry work.
00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.000 Lula Adams: She was a cook at one of the biggest boardin' houses, mid-cook
00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.000 Lula Adams: at one of the biggest boardin' houses
00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:51.000 Lula Adams: and while my mother was growing, her brother, older than her, was growing up.
00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:59.000 Lula Adams: She was, a cook at this place. She babysat at night for the Clary family,
00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:09.000 Lula Adams: and just did what she could and kept her children together because her husband asked her.
00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:21.000 Lula Adams: She told not to ever let his children go into any of his family's homes to live.
00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Lula Adams: Don't let them take over. Now, what his reason for it I'll [[Laughs]] never know
00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:30.000 Lula Adams: cause I don't guess he ever told her.
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:36.000 Lula Adams: But she fought the battle and they all four lived to be grown.
00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:48.000 Lula Adams: Before their son, the only son, was killed by getting mixed up with the wrong class of women.
00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:58.000 Pearl Bowser: So tell us a little bit about Memphis during this period that you're --
00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.000 Lula Adams: Of my life? Pearl Bowser: Growing up. Yeah.
00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.000 Lula Adams: I was born in the First Ward, as I told you,
00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:14.000 Lula Adams: the year that Memphis Health Department started registering births.
00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:19.000 Lula Adams: I'm registered in volume 1.
00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:23.000 Lula Adams: They don't have the date, but they have the month,
00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:30.000 Lula Adams: and Mrs. Annie Washington was the midwife for all that section, white and black.
00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:36.000 Lula Adams: Everybody was named Grandma Washington to her.
00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:46.000
Lula Adams: I was born next door to a Jewish family on the north side of 81st and Front Street,
00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:52.000 Lula Adams: and a black family on the south, I mean on the east side
00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.000 Lula Adams: because I was born at 346 North Front Street so
00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:04.000 Lula Adams: that's what the copy of my birth certificate shows.
00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:13.000 Lula Adams: I lived all of my life until I was near thirty.
00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:27.000 Lula Adams: Went from Main Street East Jackson in the front. Then, we moved in the rear of Concord,
00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.000 Lula Adams: which now is Parkway now but,
00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.000 Lula Adams: it was the Concord area,
00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:38.000 Pearl Bowser: and I became a member of the church at 2nd and Looney.
00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000 Pearl Bowser: How old were you then?
00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:51.000 Lula Adams: Thirteen. I was thirteen on the 25th of April, and I was baptized on the first Sunday of May
00:07:51.000 --> 00:08:00.000 Lula Adams: of that same year and joined Pilgrim's Rest, at that time, Baptist Church.
00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:07.000 Lula Adams: And my grandmother had joined there when she came here from,
00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:15.000 Lula Adams: was brought here, from Georgia. Took up with her family. [[Chuckles]]
00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:20.000 Lula Adams: I was thinking back on how
00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:28.000 Lula Adams: she said that the people that visited Macon, Georgia described
00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:34.000 Lula Adams: coming to Tennessee as everybody up here.
00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:42.000 Lula Adams: Then they sold what they had down there which was-- I don't know how they came back-- but they sold it and
00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:47.000 Lula Adams: came to Tennessee, thinking that cotton would grow so tall that you had to,
00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:51.000 Lula Adams: you know, stand up and pick at it. [[Laughter]]
00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:57.000 Lula Adams: Oh, it was the funniest thing ever she would tell me. I said, "Momma, did they really believe that?"
00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:02.000 Lula Adams: She said, "Yeah!" She said yes.
00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:12.000 Lula Adams: and I guess it must've been what the history books called the carpetbaggers went through there telling them, you know. All of that stuff.
00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:20.000 Lula Adams: They hadn't been used to being around nobody 'cause, now, she often told me that
00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:29.000 Lula Adams: there were times when the war was going on. See, she was just 9 years old when the Civil War ended.
00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:40.000 Lula Adams: But she said that the lady of the house would take her to the fort at Atlanta, and she'd thread needles for them sewing,
00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.000 Lula Adams: for the Confederate soldiers.
00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:47.000 Lula Adams: And she always was afraid of going.
00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:52.000 Lula Adams: She didn't want nobody to have her going that she knew about in the house.
00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:59.000 Lula Adams: 'Course, after I got grown, the children people would, you know, they would, they would hid it from Momma.
00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:07.000 Lula Adams: My [[laughs]] Momma couldn't have any guns around, but she said that a slave would tell her, "Caroline,
00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:12.000 Lula Adams: we are not going to let anybody bother you.
00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:18.000 Lula Adams: You don't have to be worried about what's going on in there, it's safe to say".
00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:24.000 Lula Adams: Somebody, her family, she had uncles that
00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:34.000 Lula Adams: their owner hired out to folks for, to do carpentry work. He collected the money see but they did the work.
00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:44.000 Lula Adams: But, now nobody, wasn't supposed to bother him being the bounty hunters wasn't hunting for them as runaway slaves or nothing.
00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:53.000 Lula Adams: There has always been, divisions and sections and things. A lot of things that history books don't give them account.
00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:58.000 Lula Adams: It went on.
00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:03.000 Louise Spence: What, you wanna be more detailed about that?
00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.000 Lula Adams: Huh? Louise Spence: What the history book didn't tell that division.
00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:11.000 Lula Adams: Yeah! Cause some of 'em, they, I have heard people, they have told me.
00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:18.000 Lula Adams: I mean black people have told me, that they weren't allowed to sing or to pray
00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:24.000 Lula Adams: or nothing like that. Well now, we were carried to the church,
00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.000 Lula Adams: but we sat in a different section from the owners of it.
00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:39.000 Lula Adams: My father was, he's my grandfather, [[laughs]] not my father.
00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:50.000 Lula Adams: My grandfather, he turned out be a Methodist preacher 'cause that was the Methodist
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:55.000 Lula Adams: system. That he could read the bible the way he was taught to read it.
00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.000 Lula Adams: by the people that owned.
00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:03.000 Lula Adams: But I've heard other colored people say that they didn't allow them to sing.
00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.000 Lula Adams: They had to turn the part down and
00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:18.000 Lula Adams: oh, let well, now, there have been sections of everybody just like there are right now. All white people weren't mean and nasty.
00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:24.000 Lula Adams: They just had to live with the customs of the time just like you having to do right now.
00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:30.000 Lula Adams: There are some colored people that have sense enough to know
00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:35.000 Lula Adams: That color of skin doesn't make a difference in the heart of a person.
00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:38.000 Lula Adams: 'Cause I had somethin happen to me
00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:43.000 Lula Adams: not too long ago by own of my own.
00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.000 Lula Adams: that really upset me.
00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:55.000 Lula Adams: You see, when his family, this person's ancestor
00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:02.000 Lula Adams: came here to Memphis from Alabama where he was born.
00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.000 Lula Adams: He opened, he started selling fuel, coal, and wood.
00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:17.000 Lula Adams: My mother was small, and he would go by when my grandmother would be at [[Wickertis Lord's?]] Boardin' house.
00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:27.000 Lula Adams: and see that they had fuel and leave it, and at the end of the week she would pay him.
00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:33.000 Lula Adams: All right. In later years, he and another man opened up an undertaker shop,
00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:37.000 Lula Adams: and my grandmother told me, said now
00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:41.000 Lula Adams: as long as, we all gonna die some day,
00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:47.000 Lula Adams: as long as they in business and treat you- treat y'all all right
00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:53.000 Lula Adams: I would rather that you use him when that time came
00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:56.000 Lula Adams: for an undertaker which was
00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:59.000 Lula Adams: a decent thing to do.
00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:04.000 Lula Adams: All right, that man, that particular man
00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:09.000 Lula Adams: had 6 sons, didn't but 2 of them want to be in that business.
00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:14.000 Lula Adams: But I have known, we've known each other all our lives.
00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.000 Lula Adams: Some were older than me, and
00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:27.000 Lula Adams: y'know like that, but-- and finally, about 3 or 4 years ago the last one passed.
00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:31.000 Lula Adams: That was, since my mother passed,
00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:37.000 Lula Adams: and one of the nephews
00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:44.215 Lula Adams: was an army officer. I knew the boy, the young man's father. and --
00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:51.000 Lula Adams: I'm just rambling on you can see that. [[Laughs]] Louise Spence: [[Laughs]] No, that's that's alright.
00:14:51.000 --> 00:15:00.000 Lula Adams: Uh huh. Um, I knew the young man's father and mother.
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:06.000 Lula Adams: So, when he came here as retired Army officer,
00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:12.000 Lula Adams: after his uncle passed, I called him and asked him to come out here
00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:22.000 Lula Adams: so that I could tell him what I had since I don't have any close relatives, you know.
00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:28.000 Lula Adams: What I had, and asked him to give me an estimation
00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:37.000 Lula Adams: of how much more in these modern times that I would have to add to it, see?
00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:41.000 Lula Adams: I really knew I had to paid up insurance with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company,
00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:51.000 Lula Adams: and I had-- and I had received a letter from them idea how much it would be worth,
00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:58.000 Lula Adams: and I also knew that my mother had had a straight life insurance with Metropolitan. [[background noise]]
00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:05.000 Lula Adams: You know so, it done business with the family on thirty year endowment insurance, you see.
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:11.000 Lula Adams: Ah, but anyway I asked this fellow to give me what--
00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:16.000 Lula Adams: what the modern day prices, what I would need.
00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:25.000 Lula Adams: Now, I let him know that I had a grave already paid for in the Calvary cemetary,
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:30.000 Lula Adams: and the contract and everything for the grave.
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:37.000 Lula Adams: And I told him the face value of the Metropolitan insurance and asked him
00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:44.000 Lula Adams: to give me an idea about how much, you know, I would need to add to it.
00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:48.000 Lula Adams: I don't think I did wrong.
00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:54.000 Louise Spence: That seems like a fair question. [[Laughter]] Lula Adams: I think so. Pearl Bowser: Most obvious question to ask. Lula Adams: Right.
00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:59.000 Lula Adams: But here was the thing that got me most upset with him.
00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:12.000 Lula Adams: I told him that Nat Landau was the executor of my will.
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:19.000 Lula Adams: Now what I didn't tell him was that Nat's mother had left my mother more
00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:24.000 Lula Adams: than enough to pay for her hospitalization and all that kind of stuff, you know.
00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:34.000 Lula Adams: But I didn't just didn't spend it and waste it up cause you know I knew, I didn't know who was going to leave first,
00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Lula Adams: And I wasn't goin' to waste up her money,
00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:44.000 Lula Adams: and not have sufficient thing when Miss Landau had left enough
00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:47.000 Lula Adams: to do-- for her, for her to do,
00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:50.000 Lula Adams: and nobody else ta do that.
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:57.000 Lula Adams: But her mother and father had helped my mother to bring me up the way I was grown, see.
00:17:57.000 --> 00:17:59.000 Pearl Bowser: Um huh.
00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:06.000 Lula Adams: It'd been a family situation. And when Mamma got it so she would be awake.
00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:13.000 Lula Adams: Miss Landau would have-- Mrs. Alfred Landau would have somebody to come and pick her up.
00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:20.000 Lula Adams: Every morning. She paid them to take Mamma over there to the house
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:25.000 Lula Adams: and set up there with her while somebody waited on both of them. [[Laughter]]
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:28.000 Lula Adams: That happened. Louise Spence: That's nice. Yeah.
00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:32.000 Lula Adams: [[Speaking happily]] I didn't - Of course, I didn't explain all that to him.
00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:36.000 Lula Adams: I just asked him, you know, about my business.
00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:41.000 Lula Adams: Shit! He writes Nat a letter, Nat Landau a letter,
00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:49.000 Lula Adams: and Nat was so outdone, he sent me a copy. He said nothing [[Laughs]].
00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:55.000 Lula Adams: But he writes Nat a letter telling him how much insurance I had; like he didn't know.
00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:07.000 Lula Adams: [[Laughs]] And where I had a grave, and he had chipped her out, and 3 hundred dollars had--
00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:13.000 Lula Adams: Like I didn't sense enough to read the contract. Somebody had to pay for the opening and closing of the grave.
00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:16.000 Pearl Bowser: Hmm.
00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:24.000 Lula Adams: Ah huh. I don't know where to start. But at least they did send me to school, and I tried learning a little bit.
00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:30.000 Lula Adams: And I'm fortunate enough to have the lawyers on both sides of Nat's family
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:39.000 Lula Adams: to explain anything that I need to know to -- Now wouldn't I be stupid to go do something,
00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:43.000 Lula Adams: not ask them, "Am I doing it right or wrong?"
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:50.000 Lula Adams: When my mother and her sisters were living, Pearl Bowser: Right.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.000 Lula Adams: 'Cause, see, they were working,
00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:59.000 Lula Adams: and I was the one who had to explain to them what was being said or done
00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:05.000 Lula Adams: and God listened, to be able to have folks to tell me to what to do,
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:10.000 Lula Adams: and how to do it. How to do all the things. Shh!!
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:18.000 Lula Adams: I told the guy that, he come writin' out a letter explain' what I had,
00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:23.000 Lula Adams: and uh, and uh, what he would have to be responsible for. [[Laughter by all]]. AH HA!!
00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:25.000 Louise Spence: He expected to make money off it.
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.000 Lula Adams: [[In loud voice]] That's what-- That's what got-- I think, and the sad part
00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:37.000 Lula Adams: about it is that he thought I was dumb enough to go turn my insurance policies over to him!
00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:43.000 Lula Adams: I didn't owe him nothing! I have receipts for everybody that's been buried in their family.
00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:52.000 Lula Adams: He told Nat that his family had buried folks, and why was he telling him when Nat went to the funeral.
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:53.000 Louise Spence: [[Laughs]] Pearl Bowser: Hum. Hum.
00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:01.000 Lula Adams: Nat knows that Mama, Deason, Sidney Olsen, his uncle,
00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:06.000 Lula Adams: got this grave over there in Calvary when they opened it up to Colored folk.
00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:12.000 Lula Adams: too, right across the road where Nat's mother and father
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.000 Lula Adams: are buried in the Temple of Israel. See, he didn't know that.
00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:22.000 Lula Adams: And he writes him a letter tellin' him about what he'd be responsible for.
00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:31.000 Lula Adams: Come tellin' me. You know, I can't uh-- You know, pick a color scheme like I'm givin' a party, now. [[Laughs]] Louise Spence and Pearl Bowser: [[Laughs]]
00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:39.000 Lula Adams: On my funeral. I said, "Uh-uh!" I sat and asked him that I just wanted to have--
00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:46.000 Pearl Bowser: Estimate- Lula Adams: an idea about how much more I would have to add at a
00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:50.000 Lula Adams: present day prices to have a decent funeral.
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:57.000 Lula Adams: I said, "My church will arrange its own musical program, its own myriad of things."
00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:02.000 Lula Adams: Because I have been a member there and served there long enough for somebody,
00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:10.000 Lula Adams: some of them, they were children when they first remember me, now they all grown up and takin' over.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:18.000 Lula Adams: And they know about what I like and dislike. They'll all treat me up with decency, the majority of em.
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:27.000 Lula Adams: I was sayin', "I wouldn't need you to arrange no program for my people, and blah, blah, blah."
00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:32.000 Lula Adams: I said, "Whoever's back here, they'll, you know, slick whatever's goin' on."
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:40.000 Lula Adams: So he writes Nat and tells him, "I know from our conversation that you were surprised
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:45.000 Lula Adams: to know that she had a second cousin.
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.000 Lula Adams: Now what does a second cousin got to do with what I own? [[Laughter]]
00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:55.000 Lula Adams: And what owned at that time, 'cause she dead now, but
00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:01.000 Lula Adams: And what she owned at that time was left by her mother and father, sisters - sister and brothers.
00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:10.000 Pearl Bowser: Would you like to go back to when you were a girl growing up in this community?
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:13.000 Pearl Bowser: We'd like to ask you some questions about that.
00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:20.000 Lula Adams: I didn't grow up in this community. I grew up there, in the 1st Ward. Pearl Bowser: In the 1st Ward. Yeah.
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.000 Louise Spence: Could you tell us a little about your schooling?
00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:29.000 Lula Adams: Well, I attended elementary school at Grant School.
00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:39.000 Lula Adams: It was located at that time where Hood Bins is, at Auction and Salem.
00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:49.000 Lula Adams: And I finished there at age 14.
00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:58.000 Lula Adams: 8th grade. [[Noise]] I went to Kortrech,
00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:06.000 Lula Adams: which is now Booker T. It was then located at 2nd and Webster.
00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:12.000 Pearl Bowser: Would you mind spelling the first name of the school?
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:14.000 Louise Spence: [[Cross Talk]] Before it became Booker T. Pearl Bowser: [[Cross Talk]] Before it became Booker T. Lula Adams: Uh huh.
00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:23.000 Pearl Bowser: Before it became Booker T. The name. Lula Adams: It was: K O R T R E C H.
00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:27.000 Pearl Bowser: Okay, good. Lula Adams: High School.
00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:31.000 Lula Adams: Now why they named it that, I don't know. [[All laughing]]
00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:36.000 Pearl Bowser: That was going to be my next question. [[Laughs]] What that name meant.
00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:38.000 Lula Adams: I don't know. I-- I have read something since then, but
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:44.000 Lula Adams: nobody ever told us why it was called Kortrech High School.
00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:49.000 Lula Adams: So, I-- I-- I-- I couldn't say.
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:55.000 Pearl Bowser: What did you-- What did you and your friends-- [[Cross Talk]] Lula Adams: [[Cross Talk]] I-- I-- They didn't go any further
00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:02.000 Lula Adams: the city of Memphis school didn't go any farther than the 11th grade at that time.
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:05.000 Lula Adams: I still have my certificate.
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:10.000 Lula Adams: In fact, I have my cards
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:15.000 Lula Adams: from the first grade on out through 11th. I still have 'em.
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:17.000 Louise Spence: I'm sure you were a good student, too.
00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:19.000 Lula Adams: Huh? tim Louise Spence: You were a good student, I'm sure.
00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:26.000 Lula Adams: Well, I-- it was insisted that I learn all I could. [[chuckling]]
00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.000 Lula Adams: I was an Honor Student.
00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:37.000 Pearl Bowser: What did you and your friends do, for amusement?
00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:46.000 Lula Adams: Well, we had baseball games between Manassas - was in the county,
00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:49.000 Lula Adams: and in the county high school you went to the 12th grade.
00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:53.000 Lula Adams: That school, Pete Taylor was the principal,
00:25:53.000 --> 00:26:01.000 Lula Adams: and, but G. P. Hamilton, the one at Hamilton High School,
00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:04.000 Lula Adams: he was the principal of the old Kortrech high school,
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:09.000 Lula Adams: and he is the one that organized the first band
00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:12.000 Lula Adams: in the-- in the school system.
00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:17.000 Lula Adams: And he taught the boys of his own free will.
00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:25.000 Lula Adams: And he'd buy the instruments to teach 'em to play music.
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:35.000 Pearl Bowser: And, what else did you do for amusement besides the [[Cross Talk]] games?
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.000 Lula Adams: [[Cross Talk]] Usually we went to the ballgames and,
00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:44.000 Lula Adams: just go to the neighborhood theater,
00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:50.000 Lula Adams: and things because there wasn't anything organized like it is now, for children.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.000 Pearl Bowser: You want to tell us about the neighborhood theater?
00:26:54.000 --> 00:27:00.000 Lula Adams: The neighborhood theater was located where I lived, on Main and Market.
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.000 Pearl Bowser: Do you remember the name of the theater?
00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:14.000 Pearl Bowser: Idle Hour, really? One word, or two? Lula Adams: Two. Pearl Bowser: Two words. Okay.
00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:17.000 Louise Spence: Are you talking about when you were in grammar school or in high school?
00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:22.000 Lula Adams: Grammar and high school. Louise Spence: The Idle Hour was there? Lula Adams: Uh huh.
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:24.000 Louise Spence: Did you go to the movies often?
00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:27.000 Lula Adams: Did I go what? Louise Spence: Did you go to the movies often?
00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:31.000 Lula Adams: Oh, yeah! All I had to do was prove I had my lesson then.
00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:35.000 Lula Adams: You see, we lived at 79 Commerce at that time,
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:42.000 Lula Adams: and the Parada family was on the east side of us,
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:47.000 Lula Adams: and the Winstons were on the west side of us, and across the street,
00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:55.000 Lula Adams: the Fire Chief's mother, Mrs. Fitzmorris; James Fitzmorris
00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:01.000 Lula Adams: was our neighbor on the north side of Commerce.
00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:04.000 Pearl Bowser: These are white families? Lula Adams: Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:10.000 Lula Adams: Did the theater owner-- Was one of these families owner of the theater?
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:17.000 Lula Adams: No. No. See, Mrs. Fitzmorris was the Fire Chief's mother.
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:21.000 Lula Adams: Now, James Fitzmorris didn't live in the neighborhood,
00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:27.000 Lula Adams: but his mother stayed where she was when he was growing up.
00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:34.000 Lula Adams: And, on the east side of us, on the south side of the street
00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:37.000 Lula Adams: were the Parada-- members of the Parada family.
00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:44.000 Lula Adams: We didn't go to their church; they didn't go to mine.
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:51.000 Lula Adams: See, but each respected the other's faith-- religion.
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:54.000 Lula Adams: And they did that. Now the real bunch,
00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:59.000 Lula Adams: they were west of us down on Front Street part.
00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:06.000 Lula Adams: And, when they'd get along there, of course, they were very quiet and circumspect
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:12.000 Lula Adams: because [[Noise]] other people who lived there,
00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:15.000 Lula Adams: they didn't do like some of these folks now think.
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:20.000 Lula Adams: You have never heard all that rough language and all that kinda stuff.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:23.000 Lula Adams: They got to let you know what they know how to do.
00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:30.000 Lula Adams: I-- I-- I-- I wan't used to that until these late years. Since--
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:35.000 Lula Adams: Even out here, after we moved out here after I was born.
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:43.000 Lula Adams: Those people that lived right around here, most of them, now next door there,
00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:52.000 Lula Adams: that girl's father that moved there, his--,
00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:56.000 Lula Adams: her mother and him wasn't together, but he had this child there
00:29:56.000 --> 00:30:01.000 Lula Adams: with his wife that he had at that time.
00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:07.000 Lula Adams: And he worked at the [[?]] over there until he was retired.
00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:12.000 Lula Adams: Next to them, the Hardys came here from Mississippi.
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:19.000 Lula Adams: And, I guess about 45, 44 years ago now cause
00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:25.000 Lula Adams: Vince was 2 years old; a baby child.
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:27.000 Lula Adams: And, they bought a little "shotgun house."
00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:32.000 Lula Adams: Now they have Cissor and Nelson who had this house
00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:35.000 Lula Adams: with the men.
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:41.000 Lula Adams: When [[?]] men tore the "Shotgun house" down, they had
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:47.000 Lula Adams: Ah, the house they're in now [[?]].
00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:53.000 Pearl Bowser: Can we go back to the theater that you went to? Where was the theater located?
00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:57.000 Lula Adams: Main and Market Street. Pearl Bowser: [[Cross Talk]] It-- And what-- Lula Adams: [[Cross Talk]] In the 1st Ward.
00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:03.000 Pearl Bowser: And, do you remember what kinds of movies you saw there? Lula Adams: Yeah!
00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:09.000 Lula Adams: On Mondays and Wednesdays,
00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:12.000 Lula Adams: the serial pictures ran.
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:18.000 Lula Adams: My mother would go see them, because you see, she was--
00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:21.000 Lula Adams: I was born before her eighteenth birthday,
00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:27.000 Lula Adams: and she wasn't, you know-- So I told-- Pearl Bowser: [[Cross Talk]] She was a young mother.
00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:29.000 Lula Adams: Yeah. A young mother.
00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:34.000 Lula Adams: And all I had to do was prove I had my lessons,
00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:40.000 Lula Adams: and we could go to the show, see, and see that picture.
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:46.000 Lula Adams: But I -- on Saturday, when the Western shows were on,
00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:53.000 Lula Adams: my aunt's husband liked Western shows, and he would take me.
00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:58.000 Lula Adams: I never did sit with the children when I went to the movies.
00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:05.000 Lula Adams: I'd sit with the old folks because the children made too much noise for me and I wanted to-- [[Laughs]]
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:10.000 Lula Adams: So you went to the Serials with your mother, too? Lula Adams: Huh? Lula Adams: You went to the Serials with your mother?
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:13.000 Lula Adams: Oh, yeah! Louise Spence: Oh how nice! Lula Adams: Uh huh.
00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:17.000 Lula Adams: The only trouble I got into was going on a Sunday.
00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:20.000 Lula Adams: I wasn't allowed [[Laughter by all]] to go on Sunday.
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:26.000 Lula Adams: And my friends, they were goin' to see-- I'll never forget the name of the picture.
00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:29.000 Lula Adams: Pearl White was the star, Louise Spence: [[Laughs]]
00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:38.000 Lula Adams: and her show was "Pearl White and the Black Secret."
00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:42.000 Lula Adams: They had some kind of secret thing. I don't remember even what it was now.
00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:48.000 Lula Adams: But anyway, the last show was goin to be on, and we were gonna find out.
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:51.000 Lula Adams: My friends would tell me about it.
00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:58.000 Lula Adams: My auntie, she's the oldest one, that owns this house,
00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:07.000 Lula Adams: She's be over there at Auction-- Do you know where Auction Square is at Main and Auction?
00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:09.000 Pearl Bowser: I believe so, I believe we've past it.
00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:16.000 Lula Adams: They-- That's where the slavery auction, or the slaves, at slavery time.
00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:19.000 Lula Adams: That's why they named it "Auction Square."
00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:23.000 Lula Adams: But they had it all fenced in for a while,
00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:27.000 Lula Adams: and then, when I was little they took the fence down
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:34.000 Lula Adams: and put this big stone thing in the middle of it with the, with the --.
00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:41.000 Lula Adams: But anyway, My auntie was buried on the west side of the square.
00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:46.000 Lula Adams: And I told Momma all of my friends were going to see
00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:50.000 Lula Adams: the last "The Black Secret, Pearl White".
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:58.000 Lula Adams: I had been to church that-- to Sunday School that Sunday morning,
00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:06.000 Lula Adams: and stayed 'til the morning worship service which was out around 1 o'clock.
00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:12.000 Lula Adams: And, so when I came home and had my dinner,
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:19.000 Lula Adams: see, my momma was workin' and she'd go to Ms. Alvin's house in the morning
00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:23.000 Lula Adams: and stay until they served them -- here
00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:30.000 Lula Adams: and then she'd come home with my grandmother, and we'd be at home.
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:35.000 Lula Adams: Alright, I told Momma I was goin' down to [[Sissy's?]],
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:41.000 Lula Adams: that my oldest aunt's house, [[Nellie's?]] house, and playin' square.
00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:49.000 Lula Adams: See, but I forgot that my mother wouldn't let [[Falls?]] with mine obviously playin.
00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:59.000 Lula Adams: And I went down there and told Sissy, I say "I got to have some money cause I'm going to the show,"
00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:07.000 Lula Adams: because Betty, and Thelma, and all my friends they had gone to see the last-- "The Black Secret,"
00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:13.000 Lula Adams: and I want to see it too." She said, "You know, your mother didn't like for you to go to the show on Sunday, don't ya?"
00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:17.000 Lula Adams: I said, "But I'm goin' this time." I told her,
00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:20.000 Lula Adams: "I'm comin' down to go out to play." [[Giggles]]
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:26.000 Lula Adams: She gave me the money, as she usually did, God bless her soul.
00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:31.000 Lula Adams: Whatever she could do that suited me, she'd do it.
00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:36.000 Lula Adams: And she gave me the money, and I thought I was sneaking Momma.
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:40.000 Lula Adams: See, I went walked on down Auction Street to 2nd,
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:49.000 Lula Adams: and went up 2nd Street. And when I got to 2nd and Commerce, I looked and seen nobody out on the front porch,
00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:55.000 Lula Adams: 'cause I could look up there and see 'em sittin' on the porch before I crossed the street.
00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.000 Lula Adams: I ran across the street, and went on walkin up 2nd to Market,
00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:05.000 Lula Adams: and then came down Market and crossed to Main Street.
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:08.000 Lula Adams: See, and went in the theater. Well, I was such a good customer,
00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:19.000 Lula Adams: the man that took the tickets, and folks there, they knew me. [[Laughing by all]]
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:25.000 Lula Adams: I was sittin' up there in the show back sittin' with the children, as usual,
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:34.000 Lula Adams: and the ticket taker came said, "Your momma said, come out." [[Laughing]]
00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:40.000 Lula Adams: Hoo! Scared me so bad. [[Laughing by Lula and Louise]] I got up and came on out.
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:46.000 Lula Adams: See, I knew my Momma wasn't the clownin' kind,
00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:50.000 Lula Adams: you know, like some folks go to actin' on the street.
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:55.000 Lula Adams: She just looked at me and turned around and started headin' back home. [[All laughing]]
00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.000 Lula Adams: When we got to-- She didn't wait to get close to me.
00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:08.000 Lula Adams: She just looked up, and then just turned around and came home, back home, toward home. [[All laughing]]
00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:14.000 Lula Adams: And when we got in front of the fire station, see,
00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:18.000 Lula Adams: there sat all those folks that had grown up with her.
00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:24.000 Lula Adams: The [[?]], "Oh, Kara's gonna get you!" [[Laughing by all]]
00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:31.000 Lula Adams: See, they were Catholic. You went to mass this morning, and then you went to the show this evening.
00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:36.000 Lula Adams: "You know she and Sister Hayes there," - everybody called my grandmother Sister Hayes,
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:41.000 Lula Adams: "You know she and Sister Hayes don't believe in that kind of stuff, and you're gonna catch it when you get home!" [[Laughing]]
00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:45.000 Louise Spence: [[Laughing]] Lula Adams: And they were just do that, and I was so mad and scared. [[Laughing]]
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:53.000 Lula Adams: And I went home, and when got to the place where we lived,
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:57.000 Lula Adams: it was a real fence around the front yard.
00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:04.000 Lula Adams: I opened the gate, Momma looked at me, and I looked up on the porch and saw my gran.
00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:10.000 Lula Adams: I said, "Momma, if you don't ever kill me this time, I won't never go to the show no more!" [[Laughs]]
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:17.000 Lula Adams: She said, "But your mother told you not to go, and I don't have anything to say."
00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:23.000 Lula Adams: And boy, my Momma fanned me good!
00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:28.000 Lula Adams: And I bet I didn't go to a show on Sunday until I was grown,
00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:36.000 Lula Adams: and my half-sister, my father's oldest daughter, went to a Nurse's Convention in Nashville,
00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:43.000 Lula Adams: because the colored and white nurses were separate then. They didn't have --
00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:49.000 Lula Adams: She was one of the first black nurses that, they uh-- City High, Metropolitan Insurance High.
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:52.000 Lula Adams: I have a picture of that.
00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:59.000 Lula Adams: 'Course I have all that for my comfort and will. [[Laughs]] }Cause I know what happened.
00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:03.000 Pearl Bowser: Did Betty and Thelma tell you how it ended?
00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:07.000 Lula Adams: Huh? Louise Spence: Did Betty and Thelma tell you how the movie ended?
00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:10.000 Lula Adams: I don't know. Louise Spence: [[Laughs]] Pearl Bowser: You lost interest?
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:19.000 Lula Adams: I -- Pearl Bowser: Did you lose interest? Lula Adams: I lost interest in it. I tell ya, I didn't go to a movie no more until I was grown and in Nashville.
00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:25.000 Lula Adams: Before I went on Sunday. But I'd go any other time.
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:31.000 Pearl Bowser: So what were the movies like the other times you went - not on Sunday, but?
00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:37.000 Lula Adams: Well, the Westerns were on Saturday.
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:43.000 Lula Adams: There were stars such as William Hart and Tom Mix.
00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:06.000 Lula Adams: You know Valentino came on later.
00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:13.000 Louise Spence: Was it-- [[Cross Talk]] SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"} Who was the athletic star? Louise Spence: [[Cross Talk]] Douglas Fairbanks. Lula Adams: [[Cross Talk]] That's what I was tryin' to think
00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:16.000 Lula Adams: [[Cross Talk]] of his last-- Louise Spence: [[Cross Talk]] Douglas Fairbanks, Junior-- Senior.
00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:18.000 Louise Spence: Douglas Fairbanks, Senior?
00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:26.000 Lula Adams: Yeah, but in this picture he is shown with Anita somebody. [[Laughs]].
00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:34.000 Pearl Bowser: Did you ever see westerns that were called, "Bullseye," or "Bullet"
00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:40.000 Pearl Bowser: with Noble Johnson; an actor, Noble Johnson?
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:43.000 Lula Adams: No. Louise Spence: Was there music in the theater?
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:50.000 Lula Adams: Yes, with a player piano. [[Laughs]]
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.000 Lula Adams: Yeah. They had a lit piano back then.
00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:59.000 Lula Adams: And the music was the kinda music they had out awhile.
00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:03.000 Louise Spence: And did you go with your friends from the neighborhood?
00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:14.000 Lula Adams: Oh, yeah! But I was always sittin' with the grown-ups
00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:18.000 Lula Adams: I didn't sit with the children cause they's talking,
00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:22.000 Lula Adams: cause I wanted to look and see, cause you had to read it.
00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:31.000 Louise Spence: Was the audience really noisy at the Westerns? Lula Adams: Hum? Louise Spence: Was the audience really noisy at the Westerns?
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:35.000 Lula Adams: No, not where I sat. Pearl Bowser: [[Cross Talk]] They sat-- They sat quietly.
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.000 Lula Adams: [[Laughing]] The heck with you. No, cause the grown-ups were busy
00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:43.000 Lula Adams: tryin' to get the sense of the thing, readin' on the screens,
00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:47.000 Lula Adams: See, we didn't have no talkin', silent [[inaudible]]. Pearl Bowser: Um hum.
00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:54.000 Lula Adams: You had to read it for yourself and try to fix it in your mind. Pearl Bowser: Um huh.
00:41:54.000 --> 00:42:00.000 Pearl Bowser: Was the theater large? Was the balcony and--
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:06.000 Lula Adams: [[inaudible]] [[Laughing]] It was just one floor,
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:13.000 Lula Adams: and there was low; it was slanted floor. Pearl Bowser: Um huh.
00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:17.000 Pearl Bowser: And were there Blacks only in the the theater,
00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:21.000 Pearl Bowser: or did Whites also attend that theater?
00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:25.000 Lula Adams: Oh, ah. In that theater, in that section,
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:32.000 Lula Adams: it was mostly Black people that went in there.
00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:37.000 Lula Adams: In later years, when they opened up the Orpheum,
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:49.000 Lula Adams: I went to the theater on Main Street, on the east side of Main Street.
00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:56.000 Lula Adams: I didn't go over that but two pictures because you had to get your ticket and
00:42:56.000 --> 00:43:05.000 Lula Adams: go round in the attic, and go upstairs from the outside, and I didn't go there.
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:12.000 Lula Adams: But when they opened the Orpheum, well, and you could go in from Beale St.
00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:16.000 Lula Adams: [[background noise]] and go, you know,
00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:22.000 Lula Adams: around and go up in the upper part of the theater.
00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:28.000 Lula Adams: When the first opened it, they had plays and movies,
00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:35.000 Lula Adams: and that I attended regularly, but the only time I was on Beale St.,
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.000 Lula Adams: to the theater in that section,
00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:44.000 Lula Adams: it was under the supervision of Lucille Rhine Wood.
00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:49.000 Pearl Bowser: I'm sorry. Would you repeat that name? Lula Adams: Huh? Pearl Bowser: Could you repeat that name?
00:43:49.000 --> 00:43:56.000 Lula Adams: Lucille Rhine R-H-I-N-E. Later she married Mr. Wood,
00:43:56.000 --> 00:44:02.000 Lula Adams: because at one time, teachers couldn't be married here in Memphis.
00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:10.000 Lula Adams: They weren't any better when I was in Elementary School, you couldn't be married in Houston.
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:18.000 Lula Adams: Huh. Some wide changes have been made since I been --
00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:22.000 Louise Spence: And you were saying that Lucille Rhine was; what was her position?
00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:26.000 Lula Adams: Huh? Louise Spence: Lucille Rhine, you said that she was supervising what?
00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:32.000 Lula Adams: She was a music teacher, and she went with that from her--
00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:38.000 Lula Adams: Miss Lucille Washington was a relative of hers.
00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:45.000 Lula Adams: She was a supervisor of Music at the [[?]] schools.
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:55.000 Lula Adams: And Lucille wound up to be a teacher at the high school and a supervisor.
00:44:55.000 --> 00:45:03.000 Lula Adams: But when she started off, she was just out of high school,
00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:06.000 Lula Adams: and she would give little operettas,
00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:13.000 Lula Adams: from curable stories, and they would stage them at
00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:18.000 Lula Adams: the end of a term, at the Daisy Theater,
00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:24.000 Lula Adams: and we could go to the Daisy
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:29.000 Lula Adams: under her supervision with teachers and things.
00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:33.000 Pearl Bowser: And whenever we went down there,
00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:38.000 Lula Adams: those people that were in that rough section,
00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:42.000 Lula Adams: they wouldn't give those children any trouble like folks do now.
00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:46.000 Louise Spence: But normally you wouldn't go to The Daisy because it was too rough?
00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:51.000 Lula Adams: Ordinarily, because the people
00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:55.000 Lula Adams: all around there, you know, [[?]],
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:56.000 Pearl Bowser: Beale Street, you're talking--
00:45:56.000 --> 00:46:00.000 Lula Adams: Uh huh. It was REALLY Beale Street! [[Laughs]]
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:05.000 Louise Spence: And this is something you decided yourself, or your mother and your uncle decided?
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.000 Lula Adams: My mother and her mother decided.
00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:13.000 Lula Adams: My mother married George Greenlaw
00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:18.520 Lula Adams: on January 21, 19 and 18 [[1918]].
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:30.000 Lula Adams: and Bud, he had known my Daddy, and not too many years older than Mamma.
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:33.000 Lula Adams: They grew up together in the same neighborhood. [[Laughs]]
00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:38.000 Lula Adams: So I was fortunate when my mother did marry.
00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:44.000 Lula Adams: That'd be 1919, cause when my mother did marry,
00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:47.000 Lula Adams: I was-- would have been 11 years old,
00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:56.000 Lula Adams: on the 25th of that April, and she married on January 21st, 1919.