Victoria West, 1993 April 11, Side 1

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Pearl Bowser: It's April 10th. Now, you can tell me full name.

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Victoria West: What?
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] Who you are.

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Victoria West: My Name is Victoria Sue West.

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Victoria West: I live, uh-- not sure where I live.

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Victoria West: Lived 378 Herkimer Street, in Brooklyn, New York.

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Victoria West: I was born in Emporium, Pennsylvania; October the 15th, 1902.

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Victoria West: I had a very lovely family. It was-- I was number twelve; there were 13 children.

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Victoria West: And we had a home. Was-- my father made us go to church every Sunday.

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Victoria West: There was a white church. He got-- We got up in the morning, and he took us, some-- well, not all of us; most of us to church.

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Victoria West: And he'd sit up in the church and sing all the hymns, and make us sing, and then go back in the afternoon to Sunday School.

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Victoria West: If the children today had that; it would be a better living conditions.

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Pearl Bowser: Right, was that--

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Victoria West: Now, in 1917, when I came into New York; there was a theater on Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue.

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Victoria West: They had a separate entrance for colored on the side.
Pearl Bowser: [[cross talk]] Mm.

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Victoria West: You walked up the steps and you went in the attic; and that's where you sit.

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Pearl Bowser: [[cross talk]] Mm.

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Victoria West: It wasn't the-- I guess you paid about 25 cents, and on Nostrand Avenue, there were no colored.

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Victoria West: All the houses were white.

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Pearl Bowser: [[cross talk]] Mm-hmm. So--

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Victoria West: All the businesses were white.

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Victoria West: There was no colored at all.

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Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] Mm.
Victoria West: Now today, there is no white. Everything is black.

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Pearl Bowser: Right.

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Victoria West: And when the-- Adam Clayton Powell opened the way for the colored to get in to the stores; the girls as clerks,

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Victoria West: and elevator girls, and sales girls.

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Victoria West: And before that, there was no colored in none of the stores in Brooklyn.

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Pearl Bowser: And the-- the--

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Victoria West: And the trolley cars-- There was no buses.

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Victoria West: Trolley cars were 5 cents; operated by two white conductors, one in the front and one in the back. No colored.

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Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] Mm
Victoria West: No colored at all.

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Victoria West: No colored on the elevators. No colored on the subway. No colored policemen.

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Pearl Bowser: Mm-hmm. Did--

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Victoria West: It was a different-- altogether.

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But Powell, Adam Clayton Powell, was the one that opened the way for the colored salesgirls in New York. He did that.

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Pearl Bowser: Mm. Tell me-- Tell me about the theater.

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Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] The--
Pearl Bowser: On Nostrand Avenue. Did you go to that movie house?

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Victoria West: I went to that movies, yes. I was single, and I went to that movies; and went upstairs,

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Victoria West: and you sat upstairs in the gallery. All--

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Pearl Bowser: How often did you go?

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Victoria West: Well--

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Victoria West: You know, you don't go to the theater maybe onest a week. Cause there's a movie house. Was a--and they had a Vaudev--a Vaudeville. And you--the girl would set there and play the piano.
Pearl Bowser: Uh huh.

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Victoria West: And we had no television at that time.
Pearl Bowser: Right.

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Victoria West: And so you had to go someplace. So we went to the movies. There were movies downtown, but they didn't segregate.

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Victoria West: You could go in, but they-- You buy your ticket in advance, and it was so that they seated all the colored together! [[Laughs]]

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Pearl Bowser: Ah. Ah that's interesting.

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Victoria West: It wasn't that you were pushed. They didn't tell ya, but when you got there, you could see that all the colored were in this t-- couple of lines together.

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Pearl Bowser: Now where were this? Where was that in town?

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Victoria West: That was the Majestic on Fulton Street, downtown Brooklyn. That was a big theater. And that was in about 1917-18.

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Pearl Bowser: Um-humm.

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Victoria West: And-- but that's the only theater that I can remember that showed any, and the one on Fulton Street. Prejudice. Because we didn't have many.

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Victoria West: Later on, the theaters came and they didn't show prejudice. The Albee was there, and the Fox, and they didn't show any prejudice.

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Pearl Bowser: All right.
Victoria West: Now all the stores downtown had 'White, no colored'.
Pearl Bowser: Right.

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Pearl Bowser: What-- what about the movie house? Did they hire any blacks?

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Victoria West: No, no black was hired. All white. There was only a white girl played the piano cause they didn't have any of--they didn't have talkie movies then.

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Victoria West: And the white girl played the piano. And white ushers. Only had one usher, and the ticket agent. That's all, all white. Everything was white.

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Pearl Bowser: What, what, what did you see?
Victoria West: At the--
Pearl Bowser: --At this movie house. Yeah.

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Victoria West: At the movie house? Umm, I don't remember then. They had Vaudeville.

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Victoria West: I know they had somebody come out and dance and sing. And they always had somebody come out with blackface. I remember that!

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Victoria West: They blacken him up and make him look like Bill Robinson. [[Laughs]].
Pearl Bowser: Ahhh. [[Laughs]]

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Pearl Bowser: Did, umm-- Were there any actual black performers?

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Victoria West: No.
Pearl Bowser: No?

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Victoria West: No. No. Blacken up. White blacken up, but no black. Black didn't get any employment.

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Victoria West: And when we moved here, in 1924, yeah, 1924; the year that Eddie was born;

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Victoria West: I moved before she was born. When we moved here the-- was two colored families on the block.

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Pearl Bowser: Um-hmm.

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Victoria West: And a few doors from where we lived, there was a Salvation Army.

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Victoria West: and they had a nursery, and the white people would bring their babies there for 50 cents a day.

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Victoria West: And when the coloreds started comin' in, movin' in, they sold their buildins. The 2 buildins they had, and moved out.

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Pearl Bowser: Hmm. The Y, you're talkin'

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Victoria West: The Salvation Army.

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Pearl Bowser: The Salvation Army.

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Victoria West: They moved out. And then finally, later on, all the white moved.

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Victoria West: One by one, they were getting out cause they didn't want to be with colored.

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Pearl Bowser: Right. Was there a movie house up in Emporium, Pennsylvania?

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Victoria West: Yes. We had a movie house. One movie house. Ahhhh. What did they call it? We had one Opera house.

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Victoria West: Once a year, they'd bring a show in for us, but no colored.

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Pearl Bowser: Uh. Huh
Victoria West: No colored.

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Pearl Bowser: At either the movie house or the Opera House?
Victoria West: No.
Pearl Bowser: No.
Victoria West: Neither one had any colored.

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Victoria West: There was not many people when I was born in Emporium. There was only, ahhh, about 4 colored families. That's all.

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Pearl Bowser: Um Humm.

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Victoria West: And we were treated just like white. We went to the white church. And I was the only colored girl in the school,

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Victoria West: in my class straight through. And they always treated me very nice. They had a party. I'd go to the parties.

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Victoria West: And I'd go their house and eat; sleep overnight. And they had ahh-- if anybody had a baby,

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Victoria West: my mother would make us go to the house, and we'd have to cook, and clean and help with the baby.

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Victoria West: And, we weren't supposed to get any pay at all. Nothin.

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Victoria West: A cookie or a penny. That's all you got. If you went to the store that's all you got was a cookie or a penny.

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Victoria West: in those days and times, because things were tight. Now, the trolley cars were 5 cents. The elevator line on Fulton Street was 5 cents.

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Pearl Bowser: Mmm. There was no public transportation in Emporium?

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Victoria West: All-- all public transportation was 5 cents. Ahhh, you wanna hear about the groceries?

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Pearl Bowser: The groceries?
Victoria West: Yeah.
Pearl Bowser: For-- Whaddya, what do you mean?
Victoria West: I mean how much they were?

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Pearl Bowser: [[Chuckles a little]] That might-- If you you wanna talk about that a little bit. Yeah.

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Victoria West: No, what do you want? What else? What else do you want to hear?
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] I want to talk about, umm, you know, entertainment. Black entertainment.
Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] Yeah, see,

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Victoria West: we didn't have much entertainment. We had the, ahh, the colored was not in entertainment.

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Victoria West: They had the white blacken up, come on the stage.
Pearl Bowser: Umm. Hmm.
Victoria West: Make believe they was Bill Robinson and all that stuff.

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Victoria West: Colored did not get no part in entertainment.

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Pearl Bowser: Now did you, did you ever go to ever go into New York City?
Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] The Lafayette.

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Pearl Bowser: The Lafayette. Yeah.
Victoria West: Yeah, the Lafayette had colored. All colored.

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Pearl Bowser: Ah-hah.
Victoria West: They had colored ticket agents, ushers, and colored performance. All colored. Everything was colored, the Lafayette.

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Pearl Bowser: Did they show movies at the Lafayette?
Victoria West: Humh?
Pearl Bowser: Were there movies at the Lafayette?

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Victoria West: No. No. That was ahh, Vaudeville. No movies. All Vaudeville show. No movies at all.

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Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] And uh, what, what year? Do you remember?
Victoria West: Uuhh.
Pearl Bowser: Around?

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Victoria West: Well that was up until the time it closed. They always had a Vaudeville show at the Lafayette.

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Victoria West: I went there before I was married, and I was married in 1920, 20--uh 2. 22, yeah.

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Victoria West: I was married 1922, and I went to the Lafayette before that. And it was always colored. That was an all colored show.

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Victoria West: Ushers, ticket agents and everything was colored.

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Victoria West: And, but, white would go there. But colored didn't get much employment. They uh, the colored men would dig ditches,

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Victoria West: and, there was no gas heat or heat in the house. They had stoves,

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Victoria West: so they'd bring the coal and shovel the coal, and shovel snow.

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Victoria West: But there was no, not much employment for colored. Very, very Little employment.

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Victoria West: They did-- and the women would go out to do days work.

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Victoria West: And they would get 3 dollars and 10 cents a day, for a days work.

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Victoria West: And they'd go out and clean houses. But later on, when they took them into the stores for employment, they stopped that.

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Victoria West: They went into the stores, and were elevator girls and salesgirls, and and as I said, Powell did that.

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Victoria West: He opened they way for all that. He was a wonderful man; Adam Clayton Powell.

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Pearl Bowser: When you went to the Lafayette theater, did you just go-- When did you go to the Lafayette theater?

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Pearl Bowser: Not what year but, did you go often?

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Victoria West: Oooh, we used to go maybe--

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Victoria West: Not often, once a week. And then, the money was not so free to go often.

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Victoria West: When-- If you were married, and before you's married, I went maybe more than after I got married.

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Victoria West: After I got married, the money was very small because a man making in the post office, uh, the rents weren't high. Nothing was high.

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Victoria West: Groceries were-- You could take 5 dollars and go out and get groceries for the week, and everything was reasonable. But the shows--

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Victoria West: was-- I can't remember too much about the shows, but going to the Majestic, and when you got there all the colored was sitting in, like, two or three rows together,

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Victoria West: and, but they didn't tell you that, but when you got there, you found it out! [[laughs]]
Pearl Bowser: Mmm, mm.

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Pearl Bowser: How-- how-- Did you-- How did you know what was playing at the movie house?

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Victoria West: At the movies?
Pearl Bowser: Mm-hmm.

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Victoria West: They had the pictures outside. They had the billboard outside with the pictures, and showed you what they were showing.
Pearl Bowser: Mmm.

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Victoria West: What show was going on, and who was acting. And it was the Albee and the Fox.

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Victoria West: And at the time of the Fox, there was no-- They-- You sit anyplace. Only the Lafayette's, the only theater I remember where you used to go up on the side,

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Victoria West: up the steps and go in. That's the only theater I can remember.

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Pearl Bowser: The Majestic?

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Victoria West: Hmm?
Pearl Bowser: The Lafayette was the black theater?

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Victoria West: Ye-- uh, no, the Lafayette was a white theater on Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue.

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Victoria West: The only--the theater in New York was the only that was colored. What's the name of that?

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Pearl Bowser: There was another theater in--the theater you mentioned, in--that was all black and had all, all black help.

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Victoria West: Well, that's in New York.

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Pearl Bowser: Yeah. That was the Lafayette?
Victoria West: Lafayette.

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Pearl Bowser: Right. So there was a Lafayette in Brooklyn as well?

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Victoria West: No no no no. No. Just the one Lafayette. No. I don't know what the--

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Victoria West: I can't remember the name of the theater that was on Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue.

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Pearl Bowser: You said it was the Majestic.

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Victoria West: Hm? No no no. Majestic was downtown.

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Pearl Bowser: Downtown.
Victoria West: On Fulton Street, that was down almost to Flatbush Avenue.

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Pearl Bowser: Okay, okay. But it was then like a neighborhood movie house that you can't remember the name of.
Victoria West: Hmm?

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Pearl Bowser: It was like a neighborhood movie house.

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Victoria West: Yeah, yeah. Anybody could go. You'd go and sit any place in the Fox. And the Metropolitan never showed any prejudice. You'd go in and sit.

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Victoria West: And of course the Metropolitan still goes, still open is it? As far as I know. I know I used to go down there.

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Pearl Bowser: Now when you went to the Lafayette in Harlem, did-- how did you know what was going to be there? Was it--

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Victoria West: Well, the Amsterdam News would have what was showing at the theaters.
Pearl Bowser: Mm.

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Victoria West: There was always an Amsterdam News as long as I can remember, and they would advertise what was being shown that week.
Pearl Bowser: Mm-hm.

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Victoria West: And because we had no televisions, we had no radios, and maybe it's better we didn't have no television with the trash they show today. [[laughter]]

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Pearl Bowser: Did you ever go south?

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Victoria West: I've been south, yes. I've been to--
Pearl Bowser: Go to the movies?

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Victoria West: Hm?
Pearl Bowser: Did you ever go to movies in the South?

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Victoria West: No. No, no, no, no, no. I've been to Roy's home.

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Pearl Bowser: Which Roy's?
Victoria West: Roy- Roy Bowser's home. I was there. And they have-- Marion, Virginia. They have a separate cemetery. [[pans clattering]].

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Victoria West: Would you like to hear about that?
Pearl Bowser: Sure.

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Victoria West: The colored are all buried up the hill. You have to go way up the hill when you get in the cemetery.

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Victoria West: The white are all buried down the hill. And when we went there your father's tombstone was overturned.

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Victoria West: Somebody had knocked it over, or the wind had knocked it over. Something.

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Victoria West: So Margaret went and told the people and they said they would fix it. So she kept on writing 'em and writing 'em.

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Victoria West: So when somebody went down there in the summertime, it hadn't been fixed. I think when Aunt Ethel went down.

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Victoria West: So she got after them and made them set back up the stone.

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Victoria West: But the colored down there were treated kind of rough. Because they had a separate-- Now we didn't have that.

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Victoria West: We didn't have a separate cemetery. We were buried with all the-- In Pennsylvania we were all buried together.

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Victoria West: There was only one cemetery and you were all buried together. But down South it was different.

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Victoria West: And I don't remember much about the South, because when we went, we went by car.

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Victoria West: So I can't say nothin' about transportation, I mean if they made you set here and set there because I was never on the-- on the bus with anybody, or the trolley car.

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Victoria West: We always went by car. Margaret drove. Or, even Carol drove south one year.

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Pearl Bowser: Did you ever go to the movies in any other city?

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Victoria West: In New York City?
Pearl Bowser: Other than New York City.

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Victoria West: No place at all, outside of New York.

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Victoria West: With all our traveling we didn't go to the movies, 'cause when we traveled, when we went to California we was so tired at night we was glad to get in and get some dinner and go to bed.[[they laugh]]

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Victoria West: 'Cause we drove eight hours a day.

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Pearl Bowser: Mmm. Did you know any um... black performers?
Victoria West: No.

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Victoria West: Nobody at all. I have seen Pearl Bailey. I seen her dance and perform. I seen Bill Robinson dance and perform, but I didn't-- never shook hands with them.

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Pearl Bowser: No I meant earlier.

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Victoria West: No.

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Pearl Bowser: You never knew any of the performers.

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Victoria West: We didn't have many. Bill Robinson and Pearl Bailey, that was about the earliest ones. And we didn't have much--

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{SPEAKER name= Unknown} Can I interrupt a minute while I'm here and tell them about Aunt Patty?

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Pearl Bowser: Talk about your-- when you lived

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Victoria West: When I came to Brooklyn?
Pearl Bowser: Yes.

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Victoria West: When I came to Brooklyn, it was 1917 then. And when we came here, we got a taxi at the Pennsylvania Station.

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:25.000
Victoria West: I was bringing my father was down here 'cause he was losing his eyesight. And the guy took us in the taxi and rode us all around, and around, and around, and around, and charged my father a whole lotta money.

00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.000
Victoria West: 'Cause we didn't know where we were going [[laughter]].

00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:36.000
Victoria West: And I came here from Aunt Patty, and I lived with my-- Joe's mother.

00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.000
Victoria West: You don't know Joe. You know Joe?

00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:40.000
Pearl Bowser: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you give us her name?
Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] Joe's mother. I lived--

00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.000
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] What was her name?
Victoria West: Huh? Yeah-

00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:43.000
Pearl Bowser: Give us her name?

00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:55.000
Victoria West: Ah, Hattie Johnson. And Joe Johnson. I lived with Joe and Hattie, Moses and Hattie Johnson.

00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:03.000
Victoria West: And we had ah-- We lived on Cumberland Street. Now, All those houses are torn down now on Cumberland Street; downtown Brooklyn.

00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.000
Victoria West: And uh, I--

00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:16.000
Victoria West: She was very, very good to me. I had the hall bedroom, 2 dollars and 50 cents a week,

00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:20.000
Victoria West: with my clothes washed and ironed and breakfast every morning. [[laughter]]

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.000
Pearl Bowser: [[laughs]] That was family, though.
Victoria West: Huh? It was family.

00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:25.000
Pearl Bowser: That was family.
Victoria West: All family.

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:33.000
Victoria West: All family. There's Hattie, and--oh a lot of us lived together. All the relatives lived in this big house. Now they've torn those houses down for the Long Island-- uh

00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:41.000
Victoria West: --was gonna build something, and they never did. They were extending their railroad but they never did. And uh--

00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:52.000
Victoria West: II don't know. It was a different life altogether. You could go to the store. You'd take 5 dollars; you'd get your m-- roast for Sunday;

00:18:52.000 --> 00:19:00.000
Victoria West: a quart of milk was six cents; and a pound of fig bars was fifteen cents.

00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:08.000
Victoria West: A pound of butter was 25¢, and coffee was 25 or 30¢ a pound.

00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:18.000
Victoria West: And bread; a nice loaf of A&P Raisin Bread - 8¢. Now it's a dollar twen-- 59. [[laughs]]

00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:26.000
Pearl Bowser: Yeah.
Victoria West: $1.59 now! And it was a different life altogether.

00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:27.000
Pearl Bowser: What did you do for entertainment?
Victoria West: Mmm?

00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.000
Pearl Bowser: What did you do for entertainment?

00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:37.000
Victoria West: Entertainment? I-- this house was called the get-together house.

00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:46.000
Victoria West: II had a piano, and my daughter, they would get together, and they would come,

00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:54.000
Victoria West: and they would sing and dance. And they would have-- Everything was home life.

00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:03.000
Victoria West: It was so different without the television, because you would have clubs, more clubs. And we would play a lot of cards.

00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:09.000
Victoria West: Now, we'd play a lot of cards, but the children had parties.

00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:16.000
Victoria West: They would come in here on Saturday night, and they would take up the rug and move all my furniture out my living room,

00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:21.000
Victoria West: and tell me they're gonna have a Jump.

00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:28.000
Victoria West: They'd bring potato chips and crackers, or something, and soda,

00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:33.000
Victoria West: and they'd play the piano, and sing and dance.

00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:40.000
Victoria West: And that was the entertainment. There was no-- uh-- And then there were more clubs. There were more home entertainments.

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:46.000
Victoria West: The churches had a lot of clubs. It was-- It was better living than now.

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:50.000
Pearl Bowser: Mmm-hmmm.
Victoria West: Because now everybody-- And there was no cars.

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:58.000
Victoria West: You could come up here on this street and you have a car, and you'd be the only car in the street.

00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:03.000
Victoria West: There was no cars. The people did not have cars. They did not have anything.

00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:15.000
Victoria West: When I went to ANS's to work, there was no colored colleague in the store. And when I went upstairs--

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:21.000
Victoria West: At first, I worked downstairs. And when I went up to the third floor,

00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:28.850
Victoria West: and when I went in the place, I said, "Good Morning!" And nobody spoke.

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.000
Victoria West: so I said, "What's the matter with these people?" They were mostly all Italians.

00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:40.000
Victoria West: The next morning when I went in, I said, "Good morning," and I said, "Listen."

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:45.000
Victoria West: I said, "I didn't sleep with nobody in this place last night,"

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:53.000
Victoria West: "and I was taught to say 'Good morning' in the morning." And I said, "I was raised with Italians; I slept in their bed, I drank their wine."

00:21:53.000 --> 00:22:00.000
Victoria West: I said, "They had a garden. My mother and father could go over there and get anything in their garden, and we have a garden, and we go get them."

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:10.000
Victoria West: "If Mrs. Dominic had a baby, I would go there and take care of her, help her wash and take care of her other children, and didn't get a penny."

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:19.000
Victoria West: I said, "We were raised like that." I said, "We were raised to to be-- do onto others as you wish others to do onto you."

00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:20.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:28.000
Victoria West: I said, "But these people today, oh god, Jesus, everybody's trying to do you." [[laughter]]

00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:30.000
Pearl Bowser: Now what did you do for entertainment?

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:32.000
Victoria West: When I came here?

00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.000
Pearl Bowser: Yeah, before you had children.
Victoria West: When I came-

00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:36.000
Victoria West: Before I got married?
Pearl Bowser: Mhm.

00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:47.000
Victoria West: When I came down here to, uh-- from Emporium ,I brought my father down from Emporium, he was blind, and, uh, my Bill, took him back.

00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:57.000
Victoria West: Because when I got to New York and I seen there was colored boys, we didn't have no only two colored boys in our home town, and they were older.

00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:06.000
Victoria West: And when I got here to New York and seen there was colored boys, well, pshaw, I had a fit. I didn't wanna go back to Emporium, and there was no-- You couldn't go

00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:14.000
Victoria West: at night time. Go Sunday afternoon to the houses and sing, and uh,

00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:17.000
[speaker]:I had a friend here name was uh, her last name was Green,

00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:26.000
Victoria West: and she would play the piano. We go Sunday afternoon and sing, and her mother would always give us jello or cut up peaches and cream,

00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:36.000
.
Victoria West: and uh we'd go there and sing after Sunday school. Sunday school was in the modern Brown Memorial Church,

00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:40.000
Victoria West: the big church that's downtown on Washington Avenue,

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:50.000
Victoria West: what started in a store front on Fulton Street, and we'd go in the Sunday School,

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:58.000
Victoria West: and after Sunday school we'd come out and we'd go to the ice cream parlor on the corner and get ice cream soda

00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:02.000
Victoria West: with whip cream and cherries for 10 cents,

00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:12.000
Victoria West: then we'd go from there; the bunch of us that was in Sunday School, maybe about, my cousins in there, maybe it was about eight more of us,

00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:20.000
Victoria West: we'd go there, and we'd go to my cousin Florence's house and sit on the stoop and sing hymns.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:27.000
Victoria West: We didn't know any other kind of songs to sing, [[laughter]] cause we'd been to Sunday School,

00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:31.000
Victoria West: and ,uh, it was a different life altogether.

00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:38.000
Pearl Bowser: Did the church have any influence in terms of your not going to the movies?

00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:39.000
Victoria West: In New York?

00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:46.000
Pearl Bowser: How did the church feel about entertainment; movies?
Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] The church gave,

00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:57.000
Victoria West: uh, shows. They used to call them minstrels, and the people in the church would act on the stage,

00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:06.000
Victoria West: and they'd play the piano, and they'd sing, and maybe a little dancing; not too much dancing; more singing and playing the piano.

00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:15.000
Victoria West: And they had shows, dramatized shows, in the church that would be have maybe once a month to help the church raise money,

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:23.000
Victoria West: and I think they charged something like 25 cents or 50 cents because there was no money; the people had no money; we made no money.

00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:31.000
Victoria West: When I went to work in 1929, I think it was, at A&S, I made 50 cents an hour.

00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:38.000
Victoria West: 50 cents an hour, and worked 40 hours a week, and that's no money,

00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:46.000
Victoria West: cause the kids today are getting out here making good money.
Pearl Bowser: Yeah, well, I mean 20-- 20-- 20 cents-- 50 cents--

00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:49.000
Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] 50 cents--
Pearl Bowser: cents an hour. I mean, it was a job.

00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:52.000
Victoria West: 50 cents is no money.
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] I mean, it was no money, but--

00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:54.000
Pearl Bowser: a lot of people were out of work.

00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:00.000
Victoria West: Yeah, a lot of people were out of work, and it was a different-- we had a different life altogether.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:03.000
Victoria West: Our life was nothing like the life that they have today; nothing.

00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:05.000
Victoria West: [[side conversation]] What are you doing, Betty?

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:05.660
{SPEAKER name="Betty" I'm lookin for--

00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:08.000
Victoria West: [[speaking softly]] always [[inaudible]]

00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:12.000
Pearl Bowser: When you went to the movies in Emporium, it was 10 cents.

00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:13.000
Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] Yeah.

00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:16.000
Victoria West: That's where I was born. 10 cents a movies was

00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:22.000
Victoria West: a nickel for the movies on Saturday afternoon, and a nickel for popcorn.

00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:31.000
Victoria West: The popcorn was like that; made hot at the door; and that was only a nickel, and my father gave us a dime.

00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:41.000
Victoria West: And if you saved a nickel, the next week you get an extra nickel. What do you think of that? A dime that's all we got.

00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:43.000
Pearl Bowser: Encouraging you to save.
Victoria West: A dime a week.

00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:52.000
Victoria West: And when we got shoes - these kids paying 60 dollars, 70 dollars for sneakers, - when we get shoes,

00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:03.000
Victoria West: we went to the shoe store. Mr.Vulk; remember him well. And dollar 98 for Easter shoes,

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:10.000
Victoria West: with black patent leather bottoms, and white tops with a tassel. [[Laughter]]

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.000
Pearl Bowser: What did your parents do for a living?

00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:22.000
Victoria West: My mother stayed home; she didn't work. My father refined iron, and sold coal.

00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:32.000
Victoria West: He worked in the ironworks, where you go around and pick up old iron, and they take it and frayed it out to Buffalo,

00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:42.000
Victoria West: and they use-- They frayed it out to Buffalo, and they blast it, and they use it over.

00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:52.000
Victoria West: You go around with the-- He had a horse and wagon, and you go around, wherever you see old iron and you pick it up and take it.

00:27:52.000 --> 00:28:00.000
Victoria West: And he made his living. We started with a-- They tell me when he first came to Emporium,

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:09.000
Victoria West: he had bought a house with two rooms, and every time a baby was born they add a room.

00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:12.000
Pearl Bowser: It got to be a big house.
Victoria West: Huh?

00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:14.000
Pearl Bowser: It got to be a big house. [[Laughter]]

00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:21.000
Victoria West: They didn't have 13 rooms, but they had about 8 rooms, I think.

00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:30.000
Victoria West: And then, when he-- He worked very hard; he had horses, and he had cows.

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:41.000
Victoria West: We sold milk at 6 cents a quart, with cream on it, delivered to your door, and we had our own eggs.

00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:56.000
Victoria West: At Eastertime, you go up there and peep underneath to see if the chicken had hatched the little chickens. [[Laughter]] That was cute. [00:28:49 ]
Victoria West: He worked very, very hard, but my mother didn't do nothing; she stayed home.

00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:02.000
Victoria West: My father thought my mother was so beautiful, she shouldn't even wash the dishes. She was a beautiful woman.

00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:05.000
Victoria West: Don't look at me cuz I didn't get it.
Pearl Bowser: [[Laughter]]

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:07.000
Victoria West: Marvin got a little bit of it, but I didn't get none of it.

00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:14.000
Victoria West: She had red hair and she was beautiful, and he thought she was an angel on some pedestal

00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.000
Victoria West: And it was an altogether different life.

00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:21.000
Pearl Bowser: Where did your parents come from?

00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:24.000
Victoria West: My mother came from Lynchburg; my father came from Farmville.

00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:28.000
Pearl Bowser: Lynchburg, Virginia?
Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] Lynchburg. All from Virginia.
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] Both from Virginia?

00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:37.000
Victoria West: Mmm-hmm. And uh, my father, first he bought the house, and he had the two rooms,

00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:49.000
Victoria West: then he bought the house next door to that, where Joe's mother and father lived. They paid - listen to this - they paid 8 dollars a month.

00:29:49.000 --> 00:30:01.000
Victoria West: The 8 dollars would go over to Mr.Howard, that took the taxes and everything. That paid your taxes, and your water, and your sewage. 8 dollars

00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:03.080
Pearl Bowser: A month.
Victoria West: A month.

00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:11.000
Victoria West: That paid for everything.
Pearl Bowser: Was there much land around--
Victoria West: Huh?
Pearl Bowser: Was there much land around the house?

00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:19.000
Victoria West: There was in between our house and their house there was a lot. You could've built another house.

00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:25.000
Victoria West: Then in between that, he bought the place, another lot, where he had the horses,

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:31.000
Victoria West: and the cows, and the pigs, and the chickens. It was awesome.

00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:37.000
Victoria West: My father was a hustler, not lazy like these bums today on the street doing nothing.

00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:44.000
Victoria West: We worked! We worked very, very hard. He worked hard, and we'd sell, uh--

00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:49.000
Victoria West: my mother used to sometimes I'd--

00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:58.000
Victoria West: if somebody wanted fried chickens, my father would kill the chicken, or one of us would have to go up and wring that chicken's neck off and kill 'em.

00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:05.000
Victoria West: And then my mother, we'd pick the chickens and clean em, my mother would fry em.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:12.000
Victoria West: And they'd give her, not much, they didn't pay much, but the peoples having parties; she'd fry their chickens.

00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:21.000
Victoria West: She used to fry chickens monthly, they said, and the people would give her, not much, a couple of dollars, cuz nobody- There was no money!

00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:27.000
Victoria West: There was no money, but they lived! And there was so much love in the home.

00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:36.000
Victoria West: On Sunday morning, we came down for breakfast, there was sometimes breaded pork chops with milk gravy,

00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:39.000
Victoria West: and hot biscuits or hot cornbread, or spoonbread,

00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:48.000
Victoria West: and my father and my mother would put food on the table. My father would make everybody sit down on their knees and say a prayer before we ate.

00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:54.000
Victoria West: And then, you know, the kids today never had no home like that. [[Laughter]]

00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:04.000
Pearl Bowser: No. [[Laughter]]
Victoria West: They ain't never, they don't know what a prayer is! [[Laughter]] It was a different life altogether than, the children today.

00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:12.000
Victoria West: I said if they gonna come up in a home like I came up, with so much love, and we didn't have, we had the--

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:22.000
Victoria West: Our music was great big phonograph with round records, and great big horn, and that was our music.

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:27.000
Pearl Bowser: The Victrola.
Victoria West: Yeah, Victrola. And you'd put that on and you'd wind it, then that was your music.

00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:33.000
Victoria West: But outside of that, we didn't have uh, and that organ, we had an organ, and we had a piano.

00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:41.000
Victoria West: And Belle, my sister Belle, she was the oldest, she played the organ. And we'd sing hymns every Sunday.

00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:02.000
Pearl Bowser: When you went to the movies in Emporium,
Victoria West: Yes.
Pearl Bowser: When you went to the movies in Emporium, who did you go with?

00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:48.000
Victoria West: Huh?
Pearl Bowser: When you went to the movies in Emporium, who did you go with?

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:56.000
Victoria West: My sister Gladys and me would go to the movies. You're never allowed to go anyplace alone!

00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:00.000
Victoria West: We weren't supposed to go alone anyplace.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:08.000
Victoria West: I went to the movies with Gladys, and I'd eat her popcorn to save my nickels, so I'd get extra nickels the next week. [[Laughter]]

00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:11.000
Pearl Bowser: Did your parents go to the movies?
Victoria West: Huh?
Pearl Bowser: Did your parents go to the movies?

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:20.000
Victoria West: No. I never remember my mother and father going to the movies. Never! Church? My father went to church, but I never remember--

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:25.000
Victoria West: Oh, I'll tell you one thing, we went to the circus.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:32.000
Victoria West: My father would take that day off, and hook the horses up to the wagon.

00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:42.000
And my mother and all of us would get in the back of the wagon with hay and we'd go to the circus, and she'd take a ham, she'd bake a ham,

00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:48.000
Victoria West: take a watermelon, so we'd have something to eat, and uh,--

00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:58.730
Victoria West: I don't know what else she took, but I remember the ham and the watermelon, and a case of-- they used to make what they called "Pop." It was like uh--

00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:04.000
Victoria West: Can't think what we called it. Was in a little bottle; looked like root beer.

00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:06.000
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] Can-- cans of root beer.
Victoria West: Like root beer, root beer.

00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:12.000
Victoria West: And she'd take a case of root beer, and we'd go to the circus.
Pearl Bowser: Mm.

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:20.000
Victoria West: And a lot of people come and ask for a ham sandwich, cause my mother could bake a ham.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.000
Victoria West: And so I mean it was a-- it's so different.

00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:33.000
Victoria West: And in the winter time, my father would hook the horses up to the sleigh; and put us all in the back of the sleigh--

00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:39.000
Victoria West: the wagon-- and take us in the woods for a-- for a ride.

00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:42.000
Victoria West: And he had-- always had jingle bells on the front of the horse.

00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:46.000
Pearl Bowser: Hmm.
Victoria West: And he'd take us for a ride in the woods.

00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:52.000
Victoria West: But it was more family-- See today the children don't have that family get-together.

00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:58.000
Victoria West: They don't have that love and affection, that the house-- our house was very warm.

00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:04.000
Victoria West: But the Bible always came in there; he always believed in reading that Bible before you eat; until eating.

00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:07.000
Pearl Bowser: How far did you have to go to go to the circus?

00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:08.000
Victoria West: To the circus?

00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:16.000
Victoria West: Not too far, we went-- They had a parade in morning, and they put the elephants out, and the clowns, and everything.

00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:21.000
Victoria West: And we didn't-- Of course, the whole town wasn't-- You ever been to Emporium?

00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:24.000
Pearl Bowser: Yes.
Victoria West: You been there?
Pearl Bowser: Yes.

00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:27.000
Victoria West: Well, the whole town is not much-- not a lot more than this block.

00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:29.000
[[laughter]]
Pearl Bowser: I know it's small town, yeah.

00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:32.000
Pearl Bowser: We drove-- we drove through.
Victoria West: It's small, you know.

00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:37.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm.
Victoria West: And we went to the-- The circus was lovely.

00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:39.000
Victoria West: Went to the circus--
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] The circus was in town?

00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:41.000
Victoria West: The circus was in town.

00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:45.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm-hmm.
Victoria West: Right by downtown, they had a big vacant spot, and they had the circus.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:53.000
Victoria West: And my father got free tickets because he would let them put the poster up on his board.

00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:56.000
Victoria West: So he got free tickets for us.

00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:02.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm-hmm.
Victoria West: And advertisement, it was-- Everything is a different life than today.

00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:05.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm. What about the other black families? You said that--

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:10.000
Victoria West: Hmm?
Pearl Bowser: You said that-- You said there were four black families in Emporium.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:13.000
Victoria West: Yes. Robertson's, the-- they had two sons.

00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:19.000
Victoria West: And the Scott's, had a son and a daughter.

00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:26.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm.
Victoria West: And the Patterson had a son and daughter.

00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:30.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm-hmm.
Victoria West: And Mrs. Babel didn't have any children.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:38.000
Victoria West: But she took the people that traveled on the railroad.

00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:43.000
Victoria West: They had to have a place to stay when they had stopped over- on the Pennsylvania.

00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:45.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm-hmm.
Victoria West: And she had them for roomers.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:53.000
Victoria West: And that's where Buddy lived, with his wife.

00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:55.000
Victoria West: And that's how his first wife left him!

00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:02.000
Victoria West: She came there, then one of the railroad men stole them-- she'd had twins.

00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:05.000
Victoria West: Pete and Re-Pete, they called them.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:13.030
Victoria West: And she had had twins; and this guy came there on the railroad, and stayed over the weekend and stole Buddy's first wife.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:16.000
Victoria West: --went away with her.

00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:21.000
Pearl Bowser: Huh.
Victoria West: And she left the twins. And Buddy raised the children.

00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:26.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm. Did you socialize with the other black families?
Victoria West: Huh?

00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:31.000
Pearl Bowser: Did you-- the-- did you ever go to the movies with the other black families?

00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:34.000
Victoria West: No. They were older, they were all older.

00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:37.000
Victoria West: They were all older than us.

00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:41.000
Victoria West: They-- The children were all older than me. See, I was next to the youngest
Pearl Bowser: Mm-hmm.

00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:45.000
Victoria West: in the family. Margaret was a baby, and I was next to the youngest.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:47.000
Victoria West: But we had a different life altogether.

00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:50.000
Victoria West: Different-- Everything is different.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.000
Pearl Bowser: What did-- What did the other black families do for a living?

00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:56.000
Victoria West: Ahhh.
Pearl Bowser: One ran a boarding house.

00:37:56.000 --> 00:37:59.000
Victoria West: [[Cross talk]] Let me see.
Pearl Bowser: Okay.

00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:05.000
Victoria West: Mrs. Scott, she stayed at home. Mr. Scott worked.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:12.000
Victoria West: The preacher came from out of town to preach in the little colored church they were going to open.

00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:21.000
Victoria West: And when Mr. Scott came home for lunch, Mrs. Scott had gone away with the preacher.

00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:26.000
Pearl Bowser: With the preacher! [[Laughs]]
Victoria West: The preacher stole his wife. [[Laughs]]

00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:28.000
Pearl Bowser: How often had the preacher come to the house?

00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:30.000
Victoria West: That preacher hadn't been there no time.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:36.000
Victoria West: And he fell in love with Mrs. Scott-- Mrs. Scott was a ugly woman!

00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:38.000
Victoria West: I mean ugly!

00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:47.000
Victoria West: And Mr. Scott had punished Mrs. Scott, [[slapping sound]] and the preacher came in--he had a room with them while he was preaching

00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:52.000
Victoria West: for some revival of something in the-- the colored church that they were going to open.

00:38:52.000 --> 00:39:01.000
Victoria West: And Mr.-- The preacher came home for lunch, and Mr. Scott had tied Mrs. Scott; back of the bed because-- for punishment.

00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:04.000
Victoria West: And he untied her and took her away.

00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:07.000
Pearl Bowser: Huh. Hmm.

00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:10.000
Victoria West: Now that's some story, eh?
Pearl Bowser: Yeah! Yeah.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:12.000
[[laughter]]
Victoria West: The minister!
Pearl Bowser: Did you-- yeah.

00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:14.000
Pearl Bowser: Did you go to the colored church?

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:16.000
Victoria West: Yes.
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] In Emporium?

00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:23.000
Victoria West: They opened a little colored church; Mrs. Graham, she thought that the-- that she should open a colored church.

00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:31.000
Victoria West: She had read where there were colored churches, so she rented the room in the back of the library,

00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:39.000
Victoria West: and Haddie would play the piano and sing. Haddie thought she could play the piano and sing hymns, and she never could sing.

00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:42.000
Victoria West: And we went.

00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:50.000
Victoria West: And Mrs. Graham, she was-- she had the preacher, she'd always get a preacher from someplace to come and preach.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:55.000
Victoria West: And they want the-- Long ago, they want to have their own church.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:57.000
Victoria West: But it didn't last long.

00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:01.000
Victoria West: And the library gave them the room to have their church in.

00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:03.000
Victoria West: And they didn't charge them.
Pearl Bowser: Uh-huh.

00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:06.000
Victoria West: We had one newspaper.

00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:07.000
Pearl Bowser: What was the newspap-- one black newspaper?

00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:12.000
Victoria West: One black newspaper.

00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:15.000
Victoria West: We had one white newspaper, I don't think we had a black newspaper then.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.000
Victoria West: When I came down here we had the Amsterdam, but up there we didn't--
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] In Emporium.

00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:21.000
Victoria West: Huh?
Pearl Bowser: You-- we're still talking about Emporium.

00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:23.460
Victoria West: No, we did have no black paper in Emporium.
Pearl Bowser: [[Cross talk]] I see.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:28.000
Victoria West: No black paper. There was not many people in Emporium.

00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:37.000
Victoria West: Emporium was a beautiful place. You could, you know what I mean, if the Titans had garden,

00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:43.000
Victoria West: and they had, whatever they had in there, you could go get it. You didn't even have to say, "Can I have it?"

00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:48.000
Victoria West: If we had something they want, they could come get it.
Pearl Bowser:
Pearl Bowser: Mhm.

00:40:48.000 --> 00:40:53.000
Victoria West: And I mean,they live different. It was a different love; so much love.

00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:59.000
Victoria West: And and everything was different. It's not like today. Today--

00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:00.000
Victoria West: Today it's a different world today.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:07.000
Pearl Bowser: The little public church that was in the back of the library, that was in Emporium?

00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:14.000
Victoria West: That was in Emporium. The little-- Just a-- Just row in the back of the library they let them have.

00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:21.000
Victoria West: And they had an organ in there. And Hatty, she, uh; piano. Hatty would play and we would sing.

00:41:21.000 --> 00:41:26.000
Victoria West: "Jesus lover of my soul, as the Bible told us so [[laughter]].

00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:27.000
Pearl Bowser: But you--

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:32.000
Victoria West: She-- She would sing that, and she thought she could sing. She couldn't sing worth a darn.[[laughter]].

00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:36.000
Victoria West: And it was a different life. I'm telling you. If the--

00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:40.000
Victoria West: Everything is so different, Pearl.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:48.000
Pearl Bowser: Yeah.
Victoria West: And that's living. And we could go to the spring and get down on your knees and get mineral water.

00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:56.000
Victoria West: Out the spring; right out the rocks. And rattlesnakes come down out the hill after a storm.

00:41:56.000 --> 00:42:02.000
Victoria West: The rattlesnakes would come down; my mother would run get the hoe and chop them in two.

00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:06.000
Victoria West: And great big yellow and black rattlesnakes come down after the rain.

00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:11.000
Victoria West: When it would rain in Emporium, my father would make everybody--

00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:18.000
Victoria West: Oh, the thunder and lightning! But we had such storms, you see. Our house was up high,

00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:21.000
Victoria West: and up back of it was nothing but woods.

00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:29.000
Victoria West: And trees and those little trees would come out the roots, and the mud and the stones would come down.

00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:35.000
Victoria West: And the rattlesnakes would come, and my mother just go out there with the hoe and chop their heads right off.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:38.000
Victoria West: She wasn't scared of them.
Pearl Bowser: Mm.

00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:40.000
Victoria West: She wasn't scared of nothing.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:45.000
Victoria West: But the-- Every-- The living is so different from New York.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:50.000
Victoria West: When I came down here, and my Aunt Hatty sent me to the store to get, uh,

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:57.000
Victoria West: buy some wood, and I think it was something like uh, wasn't much. Buy a package of wood for the fire.

00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:04.000
Victoria West: And when we used to go up right up in the woods and cut down a tree and make our own wood [[laughter]].

00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:07.000
Pearl Bowser: You had to buy your wood, that was here in Brooklyn?
Victoria West: Y-- Yeah.

00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:12.000
Victoria West: Buy our wood. We'd come up our wood and and-- and pile it up against our house for the winter.

00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:19.000
Victoria West: And we always had coal. We didn't have any gas; we had coal fire.

00:43:19.000 --> 00:43:22.000
Victoria West: And my mother used to, oh, she'd make bread every weekend.

00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:29.000
Victoria West: Have it by the stove rising, and always had a crop of cake in.

00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:34.000
Victoria West: Or molasses cake, molasses cookies. Those were the good old days [[laughter]].

00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:37.000
Pearl Bowser: You got to satisfy your sweet tooth.

00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:38.000
Victoria West: Mhm.

00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:45.000
Pearl Bowser: Uh can you describe or tell me about the movie house here in-- in Brooklyn?
Victoria West: What?

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:51.000
Pearl Bowser: Tell me about the movie houses that you went to here in Brooklyn and in in Harlem.

00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:56.000
Pearl Bowser: Can you describe what the movie houses were like inside?

00:43:56.000 --> 00:44:00.000
Victoria West: Well the-- the Lafayette. Was it the Lafayette?

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:03.000
Pearl Bowser: Mhm.
Victoria West: That was just vaudeville, that's all.

00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:04.000
Victoria West: A good vaudeville.

00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:11.690
Pearl Bowser: What was the house itself like? What was the-- What did the movie house look like?

00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:18.000
Victoria West: About every movie house you go in, you get your seats and sat down like--

00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:22.000
Pearl Bowser: Was it big?

00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:32.000
Victoria West: Yeah, they had a stage, yes, and they had the piano, and they had the, uh-- The Lafayette always had the orchestra, and the Lafayette always had a good show.

00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:42.000
Victoria West: You paid for it though, but it's a good show. I don't remember, can't recall what the price was, but they always had a good show, always had a good show.

00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:52.000
Pearl Bowser: Was the attraction the orchestra, or the play, or what was going on on stage?

00:44:52.000 --> 00:45:02.000
Victoria West: No, the play was the main thing. The orchestra, they had a lot of problems, a lot of noise, but the Lafayette just had good shows.

00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:11.000
Victoria West: They had the, what would they call it, Pigmeat, is that what he was? You don't remember? Pigmeat.

00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:13.000
Pearl Bowser: Pigmeat Markham. Comedian?
Victoria West: Pigmeat.

00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:20.000
Pearl Bowser: Yeah.
Victoria West: Pigmeat used to come out and they had a good show; they had a very good show, the Lafayette; a very good show.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:26.000
Pearl Bowser: And what was, what was the movie house like; the Majestic, here on Nostrand Avenue?

00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:34.000
Victoria West: On Nostand Avenue, they had the movie, and the girl would play the piano, and they didn't have any orchestra,

00:45:34.000 --> 00:45:41.000
Victoria West: and they had the, as I said, the side door, where you go up the side and go up in the set and the attic.

00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:47.000
Victoria West: That's the only place I had remembered where you had to go in separate.

00:45:47.000 --> 00:45:57.000
Victoria West: It was that place. I can never remember the name of the place because its been a many, a many a year ago for-- A lot's been under the damn since that (laughter).

00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:05.000
Pearl Bowser: You don't remember any, or do you remember any of the films you might've seen?
Victoria West: Any what?

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:15.000
Pearl Bowser: Do you remember any of the films you might've seen in that moviehouse?
Victoria West: Mn mn. In the movies, a whole of Indians running up and down the hill.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:23.000
Victoria West: They used to show a lot of Indians. Now you don't need a television, you don't see Indians at all with the, in the wigwams and all that.

00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:29.000
Pearl Bowser: Mm.
Victoria West: They used to have all the Indians in the, whole lotta but there was--

00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:35.870
Victoria West: Everything was so different. I'm telling ya, we lived a different different world; all together different world.

00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:38.832