Carroll Crouch (N)
(5:36) Mr. Crouch tells about seeing airplanes drop candy bars over Florence, Alabama in the early 1900s; he tells about chewing gum in school. 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...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/177 |
| format |
Electronic |
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| collection |
Oral Histories Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
| publisher |
Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
| topic |
Oral histories -- audios and transcripts |
| spellingShingle |
Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Carroll Crouch (N) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| fulltopic |
Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Airplanes; Schools |
| description |
(5:36) Mr. Crouch tells about seeing airplanes drop candy bars over Florence, Alabama in the early 1900s; he tells about chewing gum in school. 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 Carroll Crouch July 10, 2009 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Juliann Losey and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 14 of 14
Rhonda Haygood: You mentioned in your paper about the airplanes going over; can you describe that for us?
Carroll Crouch: Okay, I forget the name of the plane, but it was like a six passenger, I think it had six places for seats in it, you know. And it was a columned winged plane. And, but before that, when I was about eight, seven or eight years old, the first airplane come over that I had ever seen. And I didn’t know much about the airplane, but I imagined the air—, everybody had stove wood, stick of stove wood they cut, I imagined this being the airplane, was one stick like this that represented the wings and the, the other represents the body part of it. Well, they used to fly around Florence and there’s a big pasture right next to our house Viola Street, it’s Lelia Street now, Viola and Royal Avenue, a big pasture. And they dropped the Baby Ruth candy bars. Now, the Baby Ruth candy bar was about that long or at least, and about that big around, a big ole candy bar. Cost a nickel you know, or around—. They were advertising Mars and candy bars, and all like that. Well they dropped them out of the plane. Well, I’d go over there and I would manage to maybe get two of them and then I knew that they went on over to about Simpson Street, which is maybe about two blocks off, and they would drop over there, too. So I was always following these planes around. They’d come, they’d come around maybe once every two or three years or something like that. But that was the early planes. This plane that, I can’t remember the guy’s name now, he was a, kind of a stunt man too, you know, he did stunts. Ah, he would take us up, and fly us around, you know. And so we’d fly around Florence, you know, and see the buildings and all like that. It was amazing to see what it looked like from the air. So, he would take us up pretty often, cause we were running chores, you know, we’d come up and get sandwiches or something, and this other boy and I. After I went in the service and I saw so much about aircrafts, saw them crash on the front lines, I decided that it’s alright to fly if you want to, but there’s another thing is the good Lord give me a little bit of sense, and maybe he was telling me that I should stay out of them. And I still won’t fly, but I remember a plane crashed out here, in Weeden Heights, and the motor, where they come down and hit the ground, the motor went about three foot in the ground, you know, there’s that much impact. I didn’t want that to happen to me. So that’s, that’s the reason I kind of stayed away from airplanes.
I loved my young days in Florence and I think I was really blessed. There’s another lady, other than my aunt, that’d come to see us, real old friend of my mother’s, this aunt was her sister. But this other lady lived over on what was later become Military Road, I believe it’s Military Road now. And her name was Hood, and they named me, my middle name was come from that family. And she was always taking me home with her and she would take me to the Baptist church where she attended. And my mother didn’t go to church very much, being crippled like she was, you know, but my daddy would take us to church. But she would take me to these places out there, I’d go to the Sun Beam parties and first one thing, you know. I have really a lot of good memories about that, the people I associated with back then. But I, I spent a lot of time at her home and, and family. She always kept a carton of chewing gum out on the table, and I was freely, ah, get chewing gum whenever I wanted it, you know. She’d buy it in cartons like that. And another thing, talking about the chewing gum, I had a lot of change when I was going to school, and I would go by the store, the candy store in North Florence, and buy various candy bars or something like that and put them in a bag and take them with me. Well, I finally got where I would pass them around, to mostly girls, and so then I’d, I would get a whole lot of candy and chewing gum. I’d buy chewing gum by the carton. And in the eighth grade, I was chewing gum one day and this teacher said, “ Carroll,” said, “ It’s not nice to chew gum in school.” Said, “ You’re gonna chew gum,” said, “ everybody should chew gum.” Well, I just reached in that bag and got out a carton of chewing gum and passed it around to all the students, it must have been at least thirty, and her, and we all chewed gum.
RH: That’s funny. Well, Mr. Crouch, you’ve done a wonderful, you’ve done a wonderful job telling us these stories, and, and we could sit and listen forever. This is just great.
CC: Well, I enjoyed it too. I like to think about it.
RH: Okay, well, we, we sure do appreciate it.
Juliann Losey: Very much. |
| title |
Carroll Crouch (N) |
| titleStr |
Carroll Crouch (N) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| author_facet |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| id |
FLCPLoral_hist177 |
| url |
https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/177 |
| thumbnail |
http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/oral_hist/id/177 |
| _version_ |
1782468788328857600 |
| spelling |
Carroll Crouch (N)Airplanes; Schools(5:36) Mr. Crouch tells about seeing airplanes drop candy bars over Florence, Alabama in the early 1900s; he tells about chewing gum in school. 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 LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryCarroll Crouch2009-7-10sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishIs part of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library collectionContact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Carroll Crouch July 10, 2009 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Juliann Losey and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 14 of 14
Rhonda Haygood: You mentioned in your paper about the airplanes going over; can you describe that for us?
Carroll Crouch: Okay, I forget the name of the plane, but it was like a six passenger, I think it had six places for seats in it, you know. And it was a columned winged plane. And, but before that, when I was about eight, seven or eight years old, the first airplane come over that I had ever seen. And I didn’t know much about the airplane, but I imagined the air—, everybody had stove wood, stick of stove wood they cut, I imagined this being the airplane, was one stick like this that represented the wings and the, the other represents the body part of it. Well, they used to fly around Florence and there’s a big pasture right next to our house Viola Street, it’s Lelia Street now, Viola and Royal Avenue, a big pasture. And they dropped the Baby Ruth candy bars. Now, the Baby Ruth candy bar was about that long or at least, and about that big around, a big ole candy bar. Cost a nickel you know, or around—. They were advertising Mars and candy bars, and all like that. Well they dropped them out of the plane. Well, I’d go over there and I would manage to maybe get two of them and then I knew that they went on over to about Simpson Street, which is maybe about two blocks off, and they would drop over there, too. So I was always following these planes around. They’d come, they’d come around maybe once every two or three years or something like that. But that was the early planes. This plane that, I can’t remember the guy’s name now, he was a, kind of a stunt man too, you know, he did stunts. Ah, he would take us up, and fly us around, you know. And so we’d fly around Florence, you know, and see the buildings and all like that. It was amazing to see what it looked like from the air. So, he would take us up pretty often, cause we were running chores, you know, we’d come up and get sandwiches or something, and this other boy and I. After I went in the service and I saw so much about aircrafts, saw them crash on the front lines, I decided that it’s alright to fly if you want to, but there’s another thing is the good Lord give me a little bit of sense, and maybe he was telling me that I should stay out of them. And I still won’t fly, but I remember a plane crashed out here, in Weeden Heights, and the motor, where they come down and hit the ground, the motor went about three foot in the ground, you know, there’s that much impact. I didn’t want that to happen to me. So that’s, that’s the reason I kind of stayed away from airplanes.
I loved my young days in Florence and I think I was really blessed. There’s another lady, other than my aunt, that’d come to see us, real old friend of my mother’s, this aunt was her sister. But this other lady lived over on what was later become Military Road, I believe it’s Military Road now. And her name was Hood, and they named me, my middle name was come from that family. And she was always taking me home with her and she would take me to the Baptist church where she attended. And my mother didn’t go to church very much, being crippled like she was, you know, but my daddy would take us to church. But she would take me to these places out there, I’d go to the Sun Beam parties and first one thing, you know. I have really a lot of good memories about that, the people I associated with back then. But I, I spent a lot of time at her home and, and family. She always kept a carton of chewing gum out on the table, and I was freely, ah, get chewing gum whenever I wanted it, you know. She’d buy it in cartons like that. And another thing, talking about the chewing gum, I had a lot of change when I was going to school, and I would go by the store, the candy store in North Florence, and buy various candy bars or something like that and put them in a bag and take them with me. Well, I finally got where I would pass them around, to mostly girls, and so then I’d, I would get a whole lot of candy and chewing gum. I’d buy chewing gum by the carton. And in the eighth grade, I was chewing gum one day and this teacher said, “ Carroll,” said, “ It’s not nice to chew gum in school.” Said, “ You’re gonna chew gum,” said, “ everybody should chew gum.” Well, I just reached in that bag and got out a carton of chewing gum and passed it around to all the students, it must have been at least thirty, and her, and we all chewed gum.
RH: That’s funny. Well, Mr. Crouch, you’ve done a wonderful, you’ve done a wonderful job telling us these stories, and, and we could sit and listen forever. This is just great.
CC: Well, I enjoyed it too. I like to think about it.
RH: Okay, well, we, we sure do appreciate it.
Juliann Losey: Very much.http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/oral_hist,177 |