| Summary: | (7:12) Mrs. Faulkner tells how living on the Tennessee River impacted her life and she describes shopping in dowtown Florence, Alabama during the early to mid 1900s. This interview is part of an oral history project funded by a grant from the Alabama Historical Records Board, managed by the Alabama Department of Archives and History staff, using funds provided by the National Historical Preservation and Records Commission.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Della Faulkner
May 14, 2009
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Juliann Losey and Rhonda Haygood
(Also present: Joy Weekly)
Clip 5 of 8
Rhonda Haygood: Was the river important? Did you ever go down to the Tennessee River and fish or swim or—?
Della Faulkner: Yeah, we’ve been down there and rode a boat.
RH: Did you?
DF: Yeah, we always had fun on the river. My children sometimes was scared when we got in the boat, thinking we’s gonna run into that wall over there.
Juliann Losey: The Dam was there, right? Is that the wall that you’re talking about?
DF: Yeah, down below, just before you go under the bridge, we used to go over there and you know that big rock above that bridge, that wall’s just rock. And we’d be riding in the boat, and they’d, they’d— Joy’d be scared, afraid we was gonna hit that wall.
Joy Weekly: Didn’t daddy work on the van… I mean, ah, on the Dam? Didn’t he do some work on it?
DF: Well, his, Mr. Jones did. I don’t think Carrol ever worked on the Dam. You know that road that comes down, that comes into Georgia Avenue? What’s—?
JW: Tennessee Street?
DF: Hunts-
JL: Huntsville Road?
DF: Yeah, Tenn— where it runs up into town, that street is Tenn—it’s not—
JW: Tennessee
DF: Is it Tennessee? Well, he built that there on the TVA one time—
JW: That stone wall that’s still—
DF: —or PTA or whatever they had when he was young. I believe it was PTA they had and he built that wall or helped built it down through there. It’s still there.
JL: What did he do?
DF: Laid them block there. Helped lay them blocks going down there. And he used to work with his step-dad, a carpenter. He learned to do a whole lot of things that way, working with him. He was always handy around the house. He always did our work for us, a lot, where most people has to hire it done.
JW: Momma, didn’t he also work for a coal factory here or something, where they did coal for fire places?
DF: I don’t know if he ever worked in them or not.
JW: Okay. I thought I remembered an old truck that he drove that had them big sacks of coal, burlap bags.
DF: Well, you used to could buy coal here in a sack, you know, where they didn’t bring a whole load. You could buy it a sack at a time if you didn’t, if that’s what you wanted. It’s when you didn’t have much money, you used—you’d just buy what you could.
JW: Or was it the old ice plant? Did he work at the ice plant?
DF: Yeah, he worked at the ice plant.
JW: Yeah, okay, that’s probably what I remember.
DF: Yeah, we used to have ice box at the top of them steps over there and we bought ice and they’d put it in that box.
JL: How would the ice come?
DF: The one—a truck would come put in up there, in there.
JL: Was it a—?
DF: In a bag? Yeah, and they’d bring a bag up there and put it in that.
JL: Did you, did you have milk delivery back then?
DF: Milk? No.
JL: No, okay. Just throwing that out there.
JW: Yeah.
DF: I believe we did too [laughs]. Well, you tell what you know.
JW: Well, I can remember milk, and I also remember a man that brought it on horse and buggy.
DF: Yeah, ah—
JW: Milk and cheese.
DF: Noley Berry brought us milk from the country. Yeah, yeah.
JL: So, did you go downtown much?
DF: Yeah, we went. We used to go up there and go shop—street witness—I mean street shopping. You know how you go and look for something and find it and go back and get it later? Well, that’s the kind of shopping we did.
JL: What kind of places were downtown?
DF: Well, there was, there was some stores and they was running good at that time. Good stores. There was Rogers, Kreisman’s, and Woolworths, yeah, the, the Dime Store, you know, and hat shop. There was a hat shop and then there was a Corner Shop, they called it, where they had dresses, that was—they was real busy at that time. They, there’re some of them that are still there. But, you know, Rogers is gone, Kreisman’s are gone and that Corner Shop, though, is still there.
JL: Did you ever go to Trowbridges?
DF: Yeah.
JL: What was it like back then?
DF: It, it was nice to go there and get some ice cream.
JL: Did you go there a lot?
DF: Yeah. Hadn’t been long since I was there again. They’re still there. Trowbridges. They’ve been there a long time.
JL: Yep.
DF: You ever go there?
JL: Yeah, I go there a lot. So, when, um, when your husband entered the Army, did he volunteer or was he drafted?
DF: I think he was drafted at that time.
JL: How did they do it?
DF: Ah, well, I don’t remember now.
JL: Um, I understand that Minnie married your husband’s brother.
DF: Yes.
JL: How did they meet?
DF: Well, you know, Carrol being gone, Ed would visit me and Minnie met him that way. And then they got to, they got to liking each other. That’s the way that happened. So, sisters married brothers. Our kids are double cousins.
JL: How did, how did y’all court?
DF: Carrol and I? We didn’t do much [laughs]. A year, we had a year.
JW: They went to the fair.
DF: We went to the fair out there, we remember just seeing each other every once a in a while after that for a year. And after he went, he went to the army and he kept thinking about me, I reckon, and he kept wanting to get married and I said, “Let’s wait’ll you get home” and he didn’t want to do that. So we made up our mind to get married. So, that’s the way that happened.
JL: Where was the fair that y’all went to?
DF: Down at North Florence, you know where they have that, where them horses are now? That’s where it was.
JL: Now, was there a pool near there then?
DF: Unh-uh,
JL: Okay.
DF: Not then.
JL: Okay.
DF: There are now, aren’t there? I don’t know if there are now, but there are horses out there and then they have that place where they sell food there.
JL: Did you grow any of your own food?
DF: No, not after I come to Florence. I used to. We used to farm, grow everything we had. Canned enough of food to do us all winter.
JL: Where did you buy your food when you came to Florence?
DF: When I come to Florence at Price’s Grocery Store. It, it was down there, you know where the pool room is? It’s that—right across from that was a store, and that’s where I bought my groceries.
JW: And then there was an A&P.
DF: Yeah, I could go, I’d go up and—well, after Price left we went up North Florence there and bought groceries. What was the name of that store, you remem—?
JW: Wouldn’t that be A&P? Liberty?
DF: Liberty, I think was the name of that.
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