Keep the Heritage Alive!

Richard & Rose Anna Bell

Transcription of Oral History - Continued
MP So, what was his first business venture?
RB Well, he worked for different people. He worked for the Rust family. They had a car business. He washed cars and like that, you know. And he worked in those kind of places.
MP Did he do any mechanical work?
RB I really don't know. Everything he did he taught himself.
MP That's what I'm trying to get at. What other jobs did he have that enabled him to learn things? He worked at this auto place washing cars, right?
RB Yes, and then he worked for Carl's Paint ant Body Shop. He had already taken some correspondence through something. I don't remember what-anyhow to learn different things. And that's where he did the painting. He did the painting for Carl's, Carl's Paint and Body Shop. That's down there on Main Street.
MP It's still there.
RB He worked right in there for years. And then he worked on the corner. That used to be Rust's. And then he worked for-I can't think of the man's name. He was an elderly man. He went with this old man and worked with him doing the same thing.
MP It involved working with cars.
RB It gave him authority to do what-but he was under them, you see. He decided he was going to have his own shop.
MP Oh, my goodness, I don't believe it. (urgent tone momentarily)
RB He was going to have his own shop, you see. So, he opened up a little shop down on Center Street. It was a small place.
MP Where did he get the money to do this?
RB We saved our money.
MP This is what I'm interested in.
RB We saved. He didn't borrow or anything. He didn't get a loan or anything like that. We borrowed [sic] everything. And he had this shop.
MP You had saved your money then?
RB Saved. Fifty-cent pieces and like that because I'm working too, and he's working. And we saved our money, and we didn't do anything foolish or anything like that. Because the first car we ever had was in 1936, and it was a Chevy. But, anyhow he built this shop.
MP So he constructed the building himself?
RB Yes. It's cement block. Course it was 608 and 610 North Center Street down there near-you know where that building is. You know that building where the senior citizens live? You know that building there?
MP Yes. It's a kind of a high-it's Locust Street.
RB Yes.
MP Locust and Center.
RB My husband owned quite a bit from 608 to 610 on that and part of that was that.
MP So he bought-you all bought the property. And then you constructed this building.
RB We bought the property. Then he constructed the building, and he extended it quite large. When he told the people at Farm Bureau, he was going to-he did a little painting for State Farm, too, you know, cars- but when he said that he was going to open up his own shop-I can't remember the man's name, but he told him-he worked-he was one of he head people at Farm Bureau-he told him, "We'll keep you in business,"-Farm Bureau and Prairie Farmer"
MP Prairie Farmer?
RB That was an insurance company, too. Both those people are insurance people-farmers and like that. So anyhow they kept him busy.
MP Now, did he have to get any kind of.
RB Permit?
MP a license or permit?
RB Oh yeah. He had all of that.
MP Do you have any of those?
RB No, I don't.
MP That's all right.
RB Because you see everything-I think I could find them. I don't think I could find them.
MP That's all right. So now.
RB He had to get a permit to do all that, you see. He was very well established. His word was his bond. Gave nobody in writing. If he said he'd do it, he'd do it. If he gave you a price, he would give you that price.
MP Now, did he have anyone working with him, or he worked alone in doing the work?
RB He always had someone working with him. At one time we had ten men working for us. And most of them-I don't know whether you know Buzz Thomas?
MP I know some Thomases.
RB I think you know Buzz Thomas.
MP I know a Thomas called Michael Thomas. Is that his father?
RB Buzz is his father. What Buzz knows in the body business, he learned from Papa. He taught him most everything, and he said if he had the sense to do like Dick had, he'd be this and that. But you see you can't gather the money and put in your pocket. You have to put it so you have your "in go" and your "out go" and things like that. Because what's in your pocket, you're going to spend. But you have to think about your overhead. And you have to buy all your pieces.
MP So he did body work and painting?
RB And painting. There wasn't anything about a car that he didn't know. He could listen to a car and tell you what was wrong with it. And if a car had been in a bad wreck and you was going to buy it, and he looked at it he'd hear it. He'd tell you what was wrong with it and tell you whether it would be wise to fix it or not. Everything he laid his hands to just seemed to turn to gold. He was truly blessed that way.
MP So he had about ten people who worked for him.
RB At one time he did. And he taught himself. At one time he had a certificate in shorthand and typing because he taught himself that.
MP He just bought a book, and he taught himself?
RB He did that. He had gotten a certificate for that.
MP What about his accounting? He kept his own books?
RB I kept them.
MP That's what I was going to get at. How did you help?
RB I didn't know anything about that because I didn't finish high school. So when the CPA-I guess that's what you call him. He said-he asked me how I would do it because he was a close friend of my husband's. And I said, "Well, I would"-I wished I had the book here I would show you 'cause it was a big ledger like that. I said, "I'd put down the boys' names and my income, what I have to pay out and the prices of different things and the boys' wages and different things like that and keep it up yearly, and then I'd add it up each week." I did that each week. And he said, "Do it." And I did that. There was only one time when we had to pay in the taxes-that the IRS said that I was wrong by one cent, and it took me three years to clear that up because, you see, you have to go back and back, and they keep you at it. When you owe them money, you pay it, and if they owe you money, they take their time. That's the way it is.
MP I understand. So you kept the books.
RB I kept the books. I could tell you what they made and all of that sort of stuff, and some of the boys-there's one young man (phone rings). Excuse me. (tape shut off) The young man he died. He worked here, worked for Papa, and he came over to the house. That's when we lived on Miller Street, and he had a letter. He asked me was my husband was home. I said "no" he wasn't because they was all going to come over to the house. We were going to have something there. I told him "no" he wasn't here. I said, "What's you have in your hand. Why did you put it back?" He said, "Well, I wanted Dick to look at this." I said, "Could look at it?"And he says, "No, I want Dick to see it." I just turned to him-unconsciously I told him, "You can't read, can you?" He looked at me, and I said, "It's not a sin not to know how to read. It's just a sin to don't try to do anything about it." I said, "You go ahead. Papa will read it or take care of it."
MP He was a young man who worked for you.
RB Yes. He was one of the best body men you ever seen and didn't know how to read nothing, but he knew how to fix things. He was good. But anybody could talk him into buying things, and he was buying things over in Peoria and like that. So Richard talked him out of it. Anyway he talked to him. Then I told him what I said to him, and he didn't get angry. But you know the general run of people, when a Black man-and I'll say this to anybody, white or Black-if a Black man has something and he's working like the shop-my husband was the only Black person in this town to have a shop like that. And his lot and everything was busy. People going and coming, you know. If a Black man has something, sometimes the Negroes think that what they have, if they've given him a little work, that they have made him.
MP I understand what you are saying.
RB And they want something for nothing. It cost my husband his time, his effort and everything to take care of him, and what they can do is patronize him and take care of him so he can help take care of them. They want something for nothing when he's using his own gray matter. And then they say, "Oh, he wouldn't have this." Like one of them came in my house once before and says-I overheard. They didn't think I heard. "He wouldn't have this if it hadn't been for us." And I told someone else, "They wouldn't have a job if he hadn't given them work." You know what I mean.
MP I understand what you're saying.
RB My husband wasn't the best person in the world, but he was a beautiful man as far as business was concerned.
MP What was the name of his body shop?
RB Dick Bell's Body Repair. And I had a picture back there.
MP Yes. How long did.?
RB Oh, he had that shop for-I can't think.
MP From 19-you said 1936 when he started, right?
RB That's when we bought our car.
MP But when he set up the business, any idea what time it was?
RB I can't think-I thought I would see it back there, but I didn't.
MP Would you say it was shortly after you were married?
RB Oh, it was a long time after we were married.
MB Would you say about ten years? Was it before you got your first car? It was after you got your first car?
RB I think it was after we got the first car because.
MP So maybe it was around 1940, would you say?
RB I wish I could find that picture.
MP Maybe you can at some other point, and then you can tell me. It operated for how long would you say.
RB It operated until-well, he even had a shop out here at Six Points because we used to own Six Points. You know where Six Points is?
MP Let's finish this one now.
RB Okay.
MP That business operated.
RB And then he sold it.
MP He sold it. Do you know why he sold it? And to whom he sold it?
RB He was getting tired. I can't think who he sold it to.
MP But he was getting tired.
RB Yes. And we had bought the farm, see.
MP You bought the farm while he still had the business.
RB Un-huh.
MP All right. Tell me about the farm then. Why did he decide to buy the farm and when?
RB Well, he always wanted to be on a farm, and he had never been on a farm in his life. I spent my summers with my grandparents on the farm, every year right after school because I was the only one of the kids that Mom would send to Downs. It was out in Downs. But, there was a place out on Main Street that he looked at, and he liked it. It had a house and everything like that on it. So he gave me the money to pay on a down payment. I don't know-I must have stopped someplace. (tape stopped for train whistle) But anyhow when I got out there to the place where he told me-it was out on North.
MP That was in Normal?
RB It was in Normal.
MP It was in the rural area?
RB Well, not right in town. It was outside. When I got out there, the man had already taken the down payment from someone else. As fate would have it, that was probably all right. I was sick because I had the money. So I came back home, and I said, "Papa, the man had sold the house." I said, "He had already did it." I said, "I was a little late getting there." He didn't get angry. He says, "Okay." So then he had sent people-we had a playground, you know, out here at Forest Park-not Forest Park-Six Points. We had the playground and the merry-go-round.
MP You have to tell me about that now-how he happened to get that the playground?
RB He liked kids, and he always wanted to have things for the kids, see.
MP So he bought this land?
RB We had the land.
MP You had the land.
RB Because the old man that's living now that I take to the doctor, he knew that maybe somebody would say he wasn't going to sell it to him. So he went along with him, and he put the word in for my husband, and my husband got the land. We had a playground there.
MP So he had everything installed, this aMuseument stuff installed?
RB Oh, yeah. And paid cash for it. The picture is out there. We wanted horses because, you know, children around here had never.
MP And this was at Six Points. I know where that is.
RB He sent, I guess, south-wherever they had these wild Mustangs and like that, and he had Harvey Washington-you know Caribel's son?
MP Yes. I don't know her son, but I know her.
RB Harvey. My husband was a father figure to him because he was always around here. And Johnny Kerz. He was a white boy. Harvey was the only Colored boy with all these other white boys, and he sent them down, and they brought the horses back-these little ponies. And they were not broke. Well, they broke the ponies.
MP These little boys did?
RB They broke the ponies, and my husband did too. So that these kids could ride these horses, ponies. And he had-they'd go around, you know. Of course, my granddaughter she'd get on one and wouldn't want to get off because that was hers. But anyhow, before he had a place for them there, he had them out on South Main Street. Farther out on South Main Street. There was a man out there that knew my husband through the shop. He owned some property out on Six Points Road, you see, him and his sister. Well, there must have been an argument or something between the two of them. He owned the front half. His sister owned the last part half. He owned 120 acres, you see, and he said to Richard, "Dick I got some property you could buy." And he says-well, he wasn't thinking about it right then. He says, "If you want it, we'll see if we can make a deal." In the meantime, he kept talking to him, and then he told him about his sister and he said he would like Richard to have it. So Richard bought 120 acres.
MP Now, he uses the money that he made from the business to make these purchases? All right.
RB Anyhow, you know, it takes ten or fifteen years to pay for some property.
MP Sure.
RB My husband just paid for that.
MP He just paid cash?
RB Not for the whole thing. But it wasn't very long after that because everybody though we'd lose it.
MP Oh, I see.
RB He had built the house-had the house built. There wasn't nothing on there but a silo, an old silo. Everything on there now my husband put on there. Everything that is on there now my husband put on there.
MP This is where-on Six Points Road?
RB Six Points Road. You see the picture of it in there.
MP You're talking about the farm now?
RB I'm talking about the farm. Everything that's on there now, even the bushes and trees and everything like that, my husband put on there because he had a friend that was in that kind of stuff. His name is Howard Hoe,-Howe or whatever you call it. Anyhow he bought all that stuff, and we planted it. We planted. And we had hogs. We had cows. Didn't have any chickens. We didn't need them.
MP Now, he has the business while he still has the-he bought the farm while he was still operating this automobile business? Did he have anyone to help him on the farm?
RB Oh yes. Some of the boys would come out and help him out. Didn't do too much, but the boys used to run the tractor. He taught them how to run the tractors because we bought our own tractors. And everything we used we owned because when he got ready to sell it, if the price wasn't right he'd bring it back home because he was an astute business man. It cost him, and he wasn't going to give it away. So, anyhow, that's the way that was.
MP Now, this aMuseument park that he set up, how long did that operate?
RB Oh, that operated a number of years, but you see, I don't think the white people liked it because, you see, it was taking the children from the park.
MP Did the white and Black people go there together?
RB Un-huh.
MP And there was no problem?
RB No, there was no problem.
MP What year are we talking about, approximately?
RB Let me go look. It will take me but a minute. (tape is shut off)
MP He owned from Forest Park to Six Points Road.
RB Six Points Road. The oil station is right there because there's a road there. My husband owned all that.
MP That was operating in 1955, and Black and white children went there.
RB Oh, yes. And white people, women too.
MP He must have made quite a bit of money off that.
RB He did.
MP He hired quite a few people then, too, didn't he?
RB Oh yeah. He had to.
MP I'm going to want to make a copy of that if you'd let me.
RB This picture? I don't care.
MP All right.
RB I thought-he had all these horses.
MP That is amazing, and how long-about ten years would you say that operated?
RB Un-huh. He did all of this. All this stuff came from wherever they built it. A ferris wheel, merry-go-round.
MP He's a very imaginative person, right?
RB and a little place where-oh, you can't see the place where you ate your ice cream and stuff. They had the machine right.
MP Concession stand?
RB Yes. People worked in there. And people worked-and the boys worked.
MP Now did he hire whites and Blacks to work there?
RB White and Blacks. Un-huh.
MP And it was not a problem?
RB There couldn't be any problem because he didn't have it. He didn't anything with a problem. That little train was run-I don't know if you've been out to College Hills Mall and seen the little train? My husband had one, but it was run by coal just about like it was running out there. It was old time. It was real.
MP This was the only aMuseument center there was in this area then?
RB That's right-except when the carnival came to town. And you see, there's a lot of people don't want you to have that if you're Black.
MP How did he happen to get the idea to do this? Did you talk about it?
RB He usually told me what he was going to do, and I said, "Okay." I couldn't say.
MP Did you work with that? Did you help with that at all?
RB No.
MP Now, by this time, you were not working, were you?
RB I was.
MP You were continuing to work.
RB Yes ma'am.
MP In service?
RB You know Paxton's Typewriter Company? I raised their three children.
MP Is that right? So now, you bought the aMuseument park before you bought the farm.
RB No, we had the farm before we had the aMuseument park.
MP So you went and moved out to the farm.
RB Yes. I wouldn't have moved out there. My daughter died in 1960, and she died just like that. A week-let's see, was it a week or two weeks? Valentine's Day. You know how kids at school buy little things to send to their friends and all. I was sitting there. My granddaughter was laying there on the floor fixing these cards to send to her friends. She was going to Lincoln School. She was in kindergarten or first grade. I think it must have been kindergarten. I don't know. I don't remember. Anyhow she run out of envelopes. She had to have an envelope. I said, "Okay, Honey." When you work for government-in service for the government and you die, wherever you are if you live on the post, your room is sealed and nothing-everything in there to a penny is written down on there. And then the room is sealed, and whenever anybody comes to get the stuff out of there, they're responsible for everything in there. The government throws up their hands. Then you have to take everything out because they won't be responsible. When we brought those things back from Chicago, I put them in the basement over on Miller Street. That was just one house then. It's a duplex now. And we put them in the basement, and I didn't touch them 'cause I just didn't want to bother myself with those things. And when she wanted those envelopes, I knew her desk was down there with her things on it that I didn't touch. So I went down there, and there was her things sitting there with her letters that she had left there. And I brought them up there. And I'm sitting there with them. I gave her the empty envelopes, you know. And when I was standing there, I seen two letters. One said Mom and Daddy, and th e other one said Rose Anne. That was her daughter.
MP This was several years after her death, right?
RB No. This was-she died-it was right after she died.
MP I see.
RB Because we had to get those things-after we'd taken those things out of up there. See, they called us, and we took two cars and went out there to get the things and brought them back. But anyhow, one letter said Mom and Daddy and the other said Rose Anne. So, I was standing in the kitchen, and I opened the one that said Mom and Dad because it was sealed, and when I read it, I started crying. I never cried when she died. I couldn't because it would have been too much on Rose Anne because she wouldn't have understood because she was with her mother when she died, but she didn't see her. And that's what we were afraid of. We were afraid it would be a trauma on her. So anyhow, I started crying, and he came in the back door, and he said, "Hi Granny. What's wrong?" And I said, "Look at that." And he said, "Oh, a letter from Ida." And I said, "Yeah." He said, "Oh, she didn't get a chance to mail it." I said, "She didn't intend to." I was standing there crying, and he looked at me. I said, "Read it." In it she told me just how she felt, that deep down she loved us very much. He looked at me and said, "Where did you get it?" I said, "Off of those things from downstairs." Because I hadn't touched them, you see. But anyhow it was such a shock to me because the lady across the street knew before I did because her husband was chief of police or whatever and they knew. All my neighbors they just came in. Because I lived around nobody but white.
MP You lived on Miller?
RB I lived on Miller. My neighbors came in and just took over. I didn't have to do a thing. It was Bell this and Bell the other. The woman across the street died some time later on. Her children adopted me. I'm their mother. They wouldn't bury her without me. They call me. They live in DeKalb. Sandy, the oldest girl, she called me last night to see how I was doing and all that stuff, you know.
End Side A
Side B
MP Someone bought the entertainment?
RB I don't remember because he took care of all that. You know I didn't have nothing to do with.
MP Sure I understand. Would you say it was about 1960 when-about how many years did it operate, approximately?
RB In 1960, he probably had it. That's when I moved. I got to the farm. You see he had already built the house out there.
MP You were out on the farm, and this entertainment was still operating.
RB I wasn't at the farm because I didn't move. That's what I was trying to get to. I never moved until after I read that letter because my daughter said, "Mama, Daddy built you a beautiful home out there in the country, I want you to move into it and be happy."
MP And then you moved out there?
RB I didn't do a thing. After I read it-it was on the weekend. It was on a Friday or something like that. I picked up my clothes and put them in my car and drove on out there and hung them in a closet. Then on Sunday, when I had to go to church, I had to go out there and get something to put on. And that's when I moved out there. And he looked at me because he never (inaudible) me.
MP That's when you were really ready to move out.
RB I wasn't ready to move, but I did because I was trying to please her knowing that she was looking down on me and all that sort of stuff. And that's why I moved out there because of what she said in the letter.
MP And you kept the farm then until when? Just recently? That means you lived out there until.?
RB Twenty-five years. I was out there twenty-five years in the country.
MP Now, did you continue to work? You stopped working then.
RB Oh, yes. I come to town and worked. I seen that that kid was on the bus and going to school at Stanford because she went to school at Stanford, and I asked her if.
MP Where is Stanford?
RB Stanford is farther west. It was farther out than the farm. You've heard of Olympia? She was in the Olympia district. She was the only little Black gal out there.
MP Yes, that's what I would figure. So you sold the farm. Do you remember why you sold this farm?
RB Well, because my husband got tired of being on the tractor, and you know, you can ride on the tractor, and you can go to sleep and kill yourself.
MP Yes. So he was still doing that. So he was still actively farming, right? What did he raise?
RB We raised popcorn for the Cracker Jack people. They would furnish the corn-you know the.
MP Special corn. Yes, yes.
RB They furnished the popcorn.
MP How did he happen to do that?
RB I don't know 'cause he was in with everybody, you know.
MP So he got the grain.
RB He got the grain, and they'd plant it-he'd plant it, but you see you couldn't pick it until they looked it over. And when they looked it over and said it was time to pick, you picked it. They bought it back.
MP Now did he have the combines to harvest it?
RB Oh yes, he had the combine.
MP Or he did it himself? He owned his own combine.
RB He owned his own machinery, all of his own machinery.
MP So that was a pretty lucrative business, wasn't it?
RB He was the only Black farmer around here that had all of this stuff.
MP And so he was doing that, and he just got tired. What else did he raise other than popcorn?
RB Oh, we had corn and soybeans and then, of course, I had my little garden. And at one time, I had an awful lot of strawberries.
MP Did you have people come out and pick strawberries?
RB No, no. I picked my own strawberries.
MP And you canned them. Well, what did you do with the soybeans and corn?
RB We sold those.
MP You put that in one of these-what do you call these, grain elevators and sold them?
RB You see, we had one harvester. You know, one harvester. You buy them and it has "Harvester" on there. Then if you buy another one, it's got your name on it. But we only wanted one.
MP So you owned your own?
RB We owned everything out there. Everything out there. There was only one thing that we.
MP And he taught himself how to operate all of these things?
RB He taught himself. I'm not just saying it because he was my husband.
MP I know. I know you're not.
RB He taught himself. And if you would ever see him write, all you'd have to do is like-it's like if something was wrong with your car out there, you'd run it to him and you'd say-and he'd look it over, and he wouldn't say nothing to you. If you told him you wanted the car fixed, he'd walk around looking and you'd tell him what you thought was wrong. He'd ask you to start it up, and then you'd start it up. He'd listen to I,t and then the next thing you know, he was standing there-he wouldn't have to have no pencil and paper. He would have the pencil and paper and after awhile he would tell you it'd cost you such and such. And if you'd look at him, you'd say how does he know? His mind was just like this (snaps her finger), just like an adding machine. He was good. He was good at mathematics.
MP So he had this-so he sold the farm. The farm was a business, and he sold that, and he had sold the auto shop and the aMuseument park. Did the aMuseument park operate after he sold it?
RB No. We got rid of the stuff. There was one fella got hurt on one of them. It was real odd because you know how people are thinking and the fella-it was the boy's fault, one of the boys that worked there. He was in the hospital-I don't know how it happened because I wasn't there. I always went out to see him. And I went out to the hospital to see him. He was in Saint Joe's before they tore it down. And there was two fellas in there talking to him. Well, I knew right away that they were insurance agents, you see. So they wanted him to sue. When I came in to see him-I can't think what the kid's name is, but if I'd see him, I'd know. Anyhow I walked in and I asked him-I started to say Johnny, but it wasn't Johnny. I says, "How are you?" He says, "I'm all right." I says, "Are you feeling better?" He says, "Yeah." He said, "You tell Dick that they want me to sue, but I'm not going to." And I said, "Okay, but it's up to you." But, see they didn't think Richard had any insurance. He had insurance on everyone-all of his stuff.
MP Yes. I'm sure he wouldn't have operated that thing without insurance being the businessman he was. That's right. He wouldn't have.
RB He had insurance. When I told him, he looked at me-he figured they would be trying to get at him, you know. But you see the reason why-the people in town, some of them, they liked him, but still the business was a little more lucrative than they wanted for a Black man.
MP I understand what you are saying. Yes. Yes.
RB And it was right near the park and most of the kids weren't at the park because nothing at the park.
MP That's right. The exciting activity was there.
RB and they'd go on over there. He had this popcorn, and he had the soft ice cream. Of course, he had the machine to make it. And the root beer. We sold root beer, and it was ice cold. And the glasses were just frosty and every thing. People would come out there. And another thing my husband would have a hog butchered. You know those sausages you see in the stores. He had them all fixed like that. What's her name now? Her last name is Doage, Ralph Doage's wife. She used to come out to the house and buy them from us.
MP So he sold those.
RB At home. Because we had the hogs. At one time we run 300 hogs. The reason why when he was getting tired on the tractor, we had a dog, of course. We've always had a dog. This is the only time I haven't had a dog because I don't like one to be tied. We had a Rusty here in town. We had a Rusty out there, and we had other things, you know. And they were all-they were better than children. They were good to me. They protected me. If Papa was on the tractor if I didn't know where he was, all I would have to do was say,"Rust where's Papa?" He would point exactly where he was, or I would say, "Go get Papa," and he would go down the field.
MP It was very convenient for you out there on the farm.
RB I was afraid he would overextend hisself sometime, and if he'd have got throw'd off that tractor, that tractor would keep on going and.
MP Yes. Absolutely.
RB Because you could get killed on those things, but he was always trying to be careful.
MP So that's only recently that he sold the farm, and then what did he begin to do?
RB Well, he built this place.
MP Go into real estate?
RB For himself, yeah. He did Miller Street. Then he built this. He made [the place on Miller Street] a duplex.
MP He made that a duplex. He did that work himself on Miller Street.
RB Him and the fellas.
MP And then he built this house.
RB I was in the hospital when he started on this. When he brought me home, he brought me by here, but it was cold. "She just got out of the hospital. I don't want her out."
MP So you stayed on the farm until this house was built? And then he had other real estate?
RB No, that was all. That was enough.
MP In the meantime, he had the Miller place, Miller Street. He had sold the property on Locust and Center Street, hadn't he?
RB He had already sold that. You mean the shop. The shop went first.
MP He didn't do any more auto work after that.
RB Except around the house. He always-maybe, check our car. Stuff like that. But, he didn't like to work on cars after so long a time because it got to be nothing but a breeze. Just like if you could do something then for fifteen dollars, after awhile it got to be forty dollars. You know how the prices go. And he said it was just scandalous. Because he thought they was taking people.
MP But by now he was pretty old then.
RB He was the same age I am.
MP He had worked pretty hard though.
RB Mm-huh. He used to laugh at me and ask me why my hair wasn't gray like his. I guess it will get there.
MP Did he ever tell you how he got interested in business? Did he have any relatives in business or did he know very many of his relatives?
RB He didn't know any of his relatives. He wasn't around his brothers until almost after we were married.
MP So, it was just his own idea, but he had a talent for it.
RB I met his father. His father was a nice looking man.
MP Was he in business at all?
RB No, his father was blind when he died.
MP So he just developed this interest in business himself?
RB Yes, that's why they says you can have six and seven children and no ones got the same ideas.
MP They have different talents.
RB Different talents. It has to be tested, you know.
MP That's right. You have to have some opportunity to experience it and see what you can do. Did your husband have any relationship with other businesses? Was he a member of the Chamber of Commerce or anything?
RB No. He didn't go into all that kind of stuff. He wasn't an outgoing person. The fellas liked him. Just like after he died. Well, he sent a card to the fella that he got Taylor Street from because the fella comes every year from Florida to see him, you know. He always comes here. He's got a brother, and then he always stops here. They always sit here and talk all afternoon. So he sent him a card at Christmas. So he knew he was going to come, and his wife hardly ever came, but this time she came and he said-he was down there 'cause I was over at the house working. I happened to look out and see this car, and I thought I don't know who it is. And my head was all tied up because it was dusty over there. So, I walked out and seen who it was, and he put his arms around me and I said, "Did you get a card from me." He says, "No, I didn't." He says, "But I got a card from Dick at Christmas," and he said a friend of his seen him.And he says, "Hey," he says. "How are you?" He says, "Fine." "Well, I'll be going up there myself this year." He says, "Have you heard the latest?" He says, "No, what do you mean the latest." He says, "Dick Bell died." It hurt him and his wife said it was all he could talk about. He had to go to see Dick. He always wore shorts, you know, and he always sat here, and they would sit her and just talk and talk. But Richard had lots of friends.
MP But what he did, he really taught a lot of young boys the skills, the ones that he worked with.
RB If they would listen.
MP That was a tremendous thing. And he taught this Thomas man, you say?
RB Oh yes. Buzz Thomas,
MP And he started his own business?
RB He started his own business.
MP Does he still operate that?
RB I guess so. I don't know 'cause Buzz was a scamp.
MP Yes. Yes. What you were saying was that your husband was a frugal person. He believed in saving, investing thoughtfully and wisely. And he did a lot of work himself.
RB Yes, he did most of the work himself. Anybody asks me about this house, and that house over there, and they ask, "Did he have any plans?" He never made plans. He just sat down and said, "Well, I'm going to do so and so."
MP He never had any trouble with the city? Everything checked out?
RB No, everything checked out.
MP He did the carpentry work himself. Did he do the plumbing himself?
RB Most of all it and the electricity, too.
MP That's amazing.
RB I'm going to have a new ceiling put on there in the dining room and the kitchen. If the man doesn't come who's supposed to do it-if he doesn't come I'm going to get someone to do it.
MP What do you have? Do you have?
End Side B

 
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