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Transcription: [00:24:51]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
And some of your family worked there?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
And, um, this [[??]] lived here a minute, it was more. And Katy Hanes flew in and in the next house over there. Both of them worked for Pullman cleaning cars, but they lived at home at their houses. They worked, uh uh, 8 hours a day.
[00:25:21]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Was that considered a, um, good paying job?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Oh yeah, and especially for somebody that didn't have any more education than they had. God was good.
[00:25:33]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Hmm. Do you have any idea of what kind of pay they got?
[00:25:39]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Well, yes. They would get, um, I guess on the average of $4 a day.
[00:25:52]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
And what years was that -- when they were were doing that work?
[00:25:55]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
They worked from 19-- and 19, [[aside]] let me see, the war was over in 1918, November 1918 [[end aside]] well they worked from 1917.
[00:26:17]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Amelia started working in December 1917 and Kate started to work in May of 1918 and they worked until-- one of them made it 22 years and the other made it around 24.
[00:26:41]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
And that pay that you were telling us about was when they started working?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Huh?
[00:26:47]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
The pay scale, the-- when you told us how much they were making. Was that when they started working?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
That's when they started working.
[00:26:53]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Well, that was very nice then.
[00:26:55]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Mmm hmm. That's when they started working. But then they went from, um um, to 5 days a week and they have extra people for the days to fill in, you know, when the other the regular ones they have a chance to make extra money.
[00:27:18]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Could you tell us after you went to the business college, um, you were still living at home and taking care of your family's finances?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Yeah, uh huh, uh huh.
[00:27:27]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Who were your friends then?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
My friends?

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Yes, were those the friends you had still in high school or did you make new friends?
[00:27:34]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
No, I had friends in high school and friends in the neighborhood.
[00:27:41]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
And did you? What kind of amusements did you have then when you were grown up?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
To go to all the plays and everything else I could. [Laughing] Nobody when I was afraid to walk at night in that neighborhood. Cause everybody knew me.
[00:28:00]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Those that didn't want to like I live, they didn't bother me. They just let me go on my way. Nobody never nobody else.
[00:28:11]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Did you see--

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
I could ride the bus, and go down to the, uh, to the cottage to hear some music, 'cause they'd have dances, socials on. At night I could go there and--
[00:28:28]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
You could dance there?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Uh huh, yeah, and I could just enjoy a good life. I thought at the time. [laughs]
[00:28:38]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Did the-- were the plays that you saw, um, were there any, um, black companies that put on the plays that you saw?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Oh yeah, only in, in, at Church's auditorium, things like that, see.
[00:28:57]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Those were the plays?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Uh huh, yeah. And I remember the first time Mirren Allison came here. I-- I went to Church's auditorium and heard her sing.
[00:29:09]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Umm hmm. Church's auditorium that is the auditorium for the--

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Church's Park down on Beale Street.

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Uh huh. So, I mean, it was, it was a public place, not a church itself?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
[[cross talk]] Uh huh, yeah, it was only a public place.
[00:29:25]

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
See, Robert Church is, gave, Robert Church gave the park to the City of Memphis. He was the first black millionaire in Memphis. And, uh, he gave the park and the auditorium to the City and that is where colored people came there.
[00:29:50]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Do you want to talk a little about Mr. Church? Did you know very much about him?

{SPEAKER name="Lula Adams"}
Well, no. I didn't know very-- only hearsay, see, I didn't know very much about him.

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Um, were you aware of when he was forced to leave, uh, Memphis?

[00:30:11]

Transcription Notes:
Timestamps added ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-03-31 13:23:07