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Transcription: [00:23:52]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
8th grade. [[Noise]] I went to Kortrech,
[00:23:58]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
which is now Booker T. It was then located at 2nd and Webster.
[00:24:06]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Would you mind spelling the first name of the school?
[00:24:12]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
[[Cross Talk]]
Before it became Booker T.

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
[[Cross Talk]]
Before it became Booker T.

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Uh huh.
[00:24:14]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Before it became Booker T. The name.

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
It was: K O R T R E C H.

[00:24:23]
{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Okay, good.

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
High School.
[00:24:27]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Now why they named it that, I don't know.
[[All laughing]]
[00:24:31]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
That was going to be my next question. [[Laughs]] What that name meant.
[00:24:36]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I don't know. I-- I have read something since then, but
[00:24:38]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
nobody ever told us why it was called Kortrech High School.
[00:24:44]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
So, I-- I-- I-- I couldn't say.
[00:24:49]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
What did you-- What did you and your friends-- [[Cross Talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
[[Cross Talk]] I-- I-- They didn't go any further
[00:24:55]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
the city of Memphis school didn't go any farther than the 11th grade at that time.
[00:25:02]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I still have my certificate.
[00:25:05]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
In fact, I have my cards
[00:25:10]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
from the first grade on out through 11th. I still have 'em.
[00:25:15]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
I'm sure you were a good student, too.
[00:25:17]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Huh?
tim
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
You were a good student, I'm sure.
[00:25:19]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Well, I-- it was insisted that I learn all I could. [[chuckling]]
[00:25:26]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I was an Honor Student.
[00:25:29]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
What did you and your friends do, for amusement?
[00:25:37]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Well, we had baseball games between Manassas - was in the county,
[00:25:46]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and in the county high school you went to the 12th grade.
[00:25:49]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
That school, Pete Taylor was the principal,
[00:25:53]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and, but G. P. Hamilton, the one at Hamilton High School,
[00:26:01]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
he was the principal of the old Kortrech high school,
[00:26:04]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and he is the one that organized the first band
[00:26:09]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
in the-- in the school system.
[00:26:12]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And he taught the boys of his own free will.
[00:26:17]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And he'd buy the instruments to teach 'em to play music.
[00:26:25]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
And, what else did you do for amusement besides the [[Cross Talk]] games?
[00:26:35]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
[[Cross Talk]] Usually we went to the ballgames and,
[00:26:39]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
just go to the neighborhood theater,
[00:26:44]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and things because there wasn't anything organized like it is now, for children.
[00:26:50]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
You want to tell us about the neighborhood theater?
[00:26:54]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
The neighborhood theater was located where I lived, on Main and Market.
[00:27:00]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Do you remember the name of the theater?
[00:27:03]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Idle Hour.
[00:27:06]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Idle Hour? [[Laughs]]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Uh huh.
[00:27:08]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Idle Hour, really? One word, or two?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Two.

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Two words. Okay.
[00:27:14]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Are you talking about when you were in grammar school or in high school?
[00:27:17]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Grammar and high school.

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
The Idle Hour was there?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Uh huh.
[00:27:22]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Did you go to the movies often?
[00:27:24]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Did I go what?

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Did you go to the movies often?
[00:27:27]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Oh, yeah! All I had to do was prove I had my lesson then.
[00:27:31]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
You see, we lived at 79 Commerce at that time,
[00:27:35]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and the Parada family was on the east side of us,
[00:27:42]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and the Winstons were on the west side of us, and across the street,
[00:27:47]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
the Fire Chief's mother, Mrs. Fitzmorris; James Fitzmorris
[00:27:55]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
was our neighbor on the north side of Commerce.
[00:28:01]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
These are white families?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:28:04]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Did the theater owner-- Was one of these families owner of the theater?
[00:28:10]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
No. No. See, Mrs. Fitzmorris was the Fire Chief's mother.
[00:28:17]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Now, James Fitzmorris didn't live in the neighborhood,
[00:28:21]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
but his mother stayed where she was when he was growing up.
[00:28:27]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And, on the east side of us, on the south side of the street
[00:28:34]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
were the Parada-- members of the Parada family.
[00:28:37]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
We didn't go to their church; they didn't go to mine.
[00:28:44]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
See, but each respected the other's faith-- religion.
[00:28:51]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And they did that. Now the real bunch,
[00:28:54]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
they were west of us down on Front Street part.
[00:28:59]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And, when they'd get along there, of course, they were very quiet and circumspect
[00:29:06]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
because [[Noise]] other people who lived there,
[00:29:12]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
they didn't do like some of these folks now think.
[00:29:15]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
You have never heard all that rough language and all that kinda stuff.
[00:29:20]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
They got to let you know what they know how to do.
[00:29:23]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I-- I-- I-- I wan't used to that until these late years. Since--
[00:29:30]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Even out here, after we moved out here after I was born.
[00:29:35]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Those people that lived right around here, most of them, now next door there,
[00:29:43]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
that girl's father that moved there, his--,
[00:29:52]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
her mother and him wasn't together, but he had this child there
[00:29:56]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
with his wife that he had at that time.
[00:30:01]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And he worked at the [[?]] over there until he was retired.
[00:30:07]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Next to them, the Hardys came here from Mississippi.
[00:30:12]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And, I guess about 45, 44 years ago now cause
[00:30:19]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Vince was 2 years old; a baby child.
[00:30:25]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And, they bought a little "shotgun house."
[00:30:27]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Now they have Cissor and Nelson who had this house
[00:30:32]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
with the men.
[00:30:35]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
When [[?]] men tore the "Shotgun house" down, they had
[00:30:41]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Ah, the house they're in now [[?]].
[00:30:47]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Can we go back to the theater that you went to? Where was the theater located?
[00:30:53]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Main and Market Street.

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
[[Cross Talk]] It-- And what--

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
[[Cross Talk]] In the 1st Ward.
[00:30:57]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
And, do you remember what kinds of movies you saw there?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Yeah!
[00:31:03]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
On Mondays and Wednesdays,
[00:31:09]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
the serial pictures ran.
[00:31:12]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
My mother would go see them, because you see, she was--
[00:31:18]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I was born before her eighteenth birthday,
[00:31:21]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and she wasn't, you know-- So I told--

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
[[Cross Talk]] She was a young mother.
[00:31:27]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Yeah. A young mother.
[00:31:29]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And all I had to do was prove I had my lessons,
[00:31:34]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and we could go to the show, see, and see that picture.
[00:31:40]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
But I -- on Saturday, when the Western shows were on,
[00:31:46]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
my aunt's husband liked Western shows, and he would take me.
[00:31:53]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I never did sit with the children when I went to the movies.
[00:31:58]

{SPEAKER name="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]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
So you went to the Serials with your mother, too?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Huh?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
You went to the Serials with your mother?
[00:32:10]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Oh, yeah!

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Oh how nice!

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Uh huh.
[00:32:13]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
The only trouble I got into was going on a Sunday.
[00:32:17]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I wasn't allowed [[Laughter by all]] to go on Sunday.
[00:32:20]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And my friends, they were goin' to see-- I'll never forget the name of the picture.
[00:32:26]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Pearl White was the star,

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
[[Laughs]]
[00:32:29]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and her show was "Pearl White and the Black Secret."
[00:32:38]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
They had some kind of secret thing. I don't remember even what it was now.
[00:32:42]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
But anyway, the last show was goin to be on, and we were gonna find out.
[00:32:48]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
My friends would tell me about it.
[00:32:51]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
My auntie, she's the oldest one, that owns this house,
[00:32:58]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
She's be over there at Auction-- Do you know where Auction Square is at Main and Auction?
[00:33:07]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
I believe so, I believe we've past it.
[00:33:09]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
They-- That's where the slavery auction, or the slaves, at slavery time.
[00:33:16]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
That's why they named it "Auction Square."
[00:33:19]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
But they had it all fenced in for a while,
[00:33:23]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and then, when I was little they took the fence down
[00:33:27]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and put this big stone thing in the middle of it with the, with the --.
[00:33:34]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
But anyway, My auntie was buried on the west side of the square.
[00:33:41]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And I told Momma all of my friends were going to see
[00:33:46]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
the last "The Black Secret, Pearl White".
[00:33:50]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I had been to church that-- to Sunday School that Sunday morning,
[00:33:58]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and stayed 'til the morning worship service which was out around 1 o'clock.
[00:34:06]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And, so when I came home and had my dinner,
[00:34:12]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
see, my momma was workin' and she'd go to Ms. Alvin's house in the morning
[00:34:19]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and stay until they served them -- here
[00:34:23]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and then she'd come home with my grandmother, and we'd be at home.
[00:34:30]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Alright, I told Momma I was goin' down to [[Sissy's?]],
[00:34:35]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
that my oldest aunt's house, [[Nellie's?]] house, and playin' square.
[00:34:41]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
See, but I forgot that my mother wouldn't let [[Falls?]] with mine obviously playin.
[00:34:49]

{SPEAKER name="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]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
because Betty, and Thelma, and all my friends they had gone to see the last-- "The Black Secret,"
[00:35:07]

{SPEAKER name="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]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I said, "But I'm goin' this time." I told her,
[00:35:17]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
"I'm comin' down to go out to play." [[Giggles]]
[00:35:20]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
She gave me the money, as she usually did, God bless her soul.
[00:35:26]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Whatever she could do that suited me, she'd do it.
[00:35:31]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And she gave me the money, and I thought I was sneaking Momma.
[00:35:36]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
See, I went walked on down Auction Street to 2nd,
[00:35:40]

{SPEAKER name="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]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
'cause I could look up there and see 'em sittin' on the porch before I crossed the street.
[00:35:55]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I ran across the street, and went on walkin up 2nd to Market,
[00:35:59]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and then came down Market and crossed to Main Street.
[00:36:05]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
See, and went in the theater. Well, I was such a good customer,
[00:36:08]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
the man that took the tickets, and folks there, they knew me. [[Laughing by all]]
[00:36:19]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I was sittin' up there in the show back sittin' with the children, as usual,
[00:36:25]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and the ticket taker came said, "Your momma said, come out." [[Laughing]]
[00:36:34]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Hoo! Scared me so bad. [[Laughing by Lula and Louise]]
I got up and came on out.
[00:36:40]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
See, I knew my Momma wasn't the clownin' kind,
[00:36:46]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
you know, like some folks go to actin' on the street.
[00:36:50]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
She just looked at me and turned around and started headin' back home.
[[All laughing]]
[00:36:55]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
When we got to-- She didn't wait to get close to me.
[00:37:01]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
She just looked up, and then just turned around and came home, back home, toward home.
[[All laughing]]
[00:37:08]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And when we got in front of the fire station, see,
[00:37:14]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
there sat all those folks that had grown up with her.
[00:37:18]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
The [[?]], "Oh, Kara's gonna get you!" [[Laughing by all]]
[00:37:24]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
See, they were Catholic. You went to mass this morning, and then you went to the show this evening.
[00:37:31]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
"You know she and Sister Hayes there," - everybody called my grandmother Sister Hayes,
[00:37:36]

{SPEAKER name="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]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
[[Laughing]]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And they were just do that, and I was so mad and scared. [[Laughing]]
[00:37:45]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And I went home, and when got to the place where we lived,
[00:37:53]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
it was a real fence around the front yard.
[00:37:57]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I opened the gate, Momma looked at me, and I looked up on the porch and saw my gran.
[00:38:04]

{SPEAKER name="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]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
She said, "But your mother told you not to go, and I don't have anything to say."
[00:38:17]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And boy, my Momma fanned me good!
[00:38:23]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And I bet I didn't go to a show on Sunday until I was grown,
[00:38:28]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
and my half-sister, my father's oldest daughter, went to a Nurse's Convention in Nashville,
[00:38:36]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
because the colored and white nurses were separate then. They didn't have --
[00:38:43]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
She was one of the first black nurses that, they uh-- City High, Metropolitan Insurance High.
[00:38:49]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I have a picture of that.
[00:38:52]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
'Course I have all that for my comfort and will. [[Laughs]] }Cause I know what happened.
[00:38:59]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Did Betty and Thelma tell you how it ended?
[00:39:03]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Huh?

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Did Betty and Thelma tell you how the movie ended?
[00:39:07]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I don't know.

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
[[Laughs]]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
You lost interest?
[00:39:10]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I --

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Did you lose interest?

{SPEAKER name="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]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Before I went on Sunday. But I'd go any other time.
[00:39:25]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
So what were the movies like the other times you went - not on Sunday, but?
[00:39:31]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Well, the Westerns were on Saturday.
[00:39:37]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
There were stars such as William Hart and Tom Mix.
[00:39:43]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And, let's see, [[inaudible]] star, Eddie--
[00:39:51]

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-03-29 00:19:57 *The reason for the timestamp going right after the talking part is because you stop the recording at the exact spot that you are clicking for the timestamp. That is easiest to do, at the end of the words you are hearing, then stopping, NOT at the beginning of each talking segment. IT IS FOUND IN THE VIDEO on INSTRUCTIONS FOR TRANSCRIPTION of these tapes. The lady puts it right on the line after the talking segment. THE INTERVIEWER WITH the YOUNGER VOICE IS LOUISE. THE OTHER INTERVIEWER IS PEARL. THEY ARE INTERVIEWING LULA. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-03-31 09:14:54 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-03-31 15:43:01 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-04-01 09:42:16 Made some minor edits & removed "filler sounds" as per Instructions (Filler sounds and relexive speech (ums, uhs, ughs): It is not required to transcribe every instance a filler sound is heard, especially if there are many (try to limit this to 2-4 instances per segment). Please only transcribe these sounds if they are used for stalling or for a significant pause in the conversation). Also added more timestamps per instructions because they were 10-15 secs apart vs 5 secs as indicated therein. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-04-01 18:15:45