| Transcription of Oral History - Tape 1 - July 15, 1986 |
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| Subjects: Oscar and Ruth Waddell |
| Interviewer: Dr. Mildred Pratt |
| Date: July 15, 1986 |
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| Side A; Tape 1 |
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| MP |
Today is July 15, 1986 and I am interviewing Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Waddell. Mrs. Waddell is going to speak first. |
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| RW |
I am Ruth Waddell, and I was born in Lincoln, Illinois in the year of 1923. My mother
is Marie Whiteside and my father was Luther M. Gaines. At the age of one and a half, I came to Bloomington, and this is where my parents lived. There are six of us, and I am the oldest of the six. Four boys and two girls. Right now I have one brother that's passed away, and my mother lives in Michigan and my father is deceased. My father worked for Fords for forty years, and this is why my parents moved to Michigan. |
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| MP |
He worked in Detroit?
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| RW |
In Detroit, Michigan. And then I have one brother that lives there and a sister, and I have one brother that lives in Oakland, California and I have one brother who lives in Oahu, Hawaii. They are retired Navy men. |
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| MP |
Could you tell me now, were your parents born in Lincoln, Illinois? |
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| RW |
My mother was born in Lincoln, and my dad was born in Bloomington, Illinois. My mother's family there were just two girls. Mother had a sister, and my dad had-there were seven in that family. There were four girls and three boys, and of that family now there are only four living. And that is Rose Anna Bell and Edward Gaines of Chicago, Frances Gaines of Bloomington, and Leota Jones of Chicago. |
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| MP |
Now how did your family, where did your family originate, your father you said was born in Lincoln, is that right? |
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| RW |
My mother was born in Lincoln. |
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| MP |
Your mother was born in Lincoln. Your father was born in Bloomington? Now what about your mother's parents? |
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| RW |
On my mother's side my grandmother was a Hardin and she came from Sparta, Illinois, and my grandfather he came from a town not too far from here and it was called... I forgot the name of the town. They were farmers, and they came east of town. Then my dad was born and raised in Bloomington, but his father came from West Virginia. |
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| MP |
And how did his father happen to come from West Virginia? Do you know anything about
that early history at all. |
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| RW |
I don't know how he came here. He was a railroad man for many, many years. But I don't know how he happened to come. |
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| MP |
Would you tell me about your education?
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| RW |
I went to the Raymond School. I first started in the Irving School, which is over on the
corner of Jackson and Mason. At the third grade, my folks built a house out on Sunnyside, and so we moved, Then I had to go to Raymond School. They called it the old Raymond School. It was way out on the 1400 block West Grove Street. There weren't too many Negroes out there. In fact, in my neighborhood I was the only Negro in that neighborhood. So I grew up with all hard ankle white boys. |
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| MP |
How was it with you?
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| RW |
I got along fine. We were just like one family. What one had, the other one had. And then
the Beacham family was another Negro family-they moved there [1623 Indiana Street]. But in the block where we lived, my grandfather owned all of that ground that was out there, which is now right across the street on Illinois Street from the projects and it is a playground now. And my grandfather owned from the corner clear down three-fourths of that area. My uncle, who was Walter Gaines who has passed away, who is Aunt Rose Anna's brother, he had built a little house, and he was going to Illinois State University. He just had two children, and they built a house. My grandfather gave the ground to the boys, and so then he gave the ground on the corner to my dad. So we owned the corner lots, and then the next lot my dad built the house. He was working at the Railroad, but then he worked part-time at the Corn Belt Lumber Company. |
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| MP |
So he actually constructed the house.
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| RW |
The Corn Belt Lumber Company built it for us. We didn't have a big house. We had three
bedrooms, a little dinette, and a kitchen. But then we had the corner, which was double lots. We had fruit trees, and we had a big gardens. We raised chicken and pigeons and ducks and geese. My aunt and uncle lived-well, there's a lot in between. My aunt's sister owned that, Mildred. She passed away. She owned it. Then the next lots were my Uncle Walter's, and he raised Rhode Island Red chickens, [unclear] and they had guineas, too |
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| MP |
And he sold them, is that right?
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| RW |
Well, when they had an abundant amount of eggs or whatever, he would sell a few because
out at Sunnyside at that time... There was nothing out there at that time but corn, cows, and pigs and children. (laughter) Then I went to the old Raymond School. Then they built the new Raymond School, which is on Magoun Street. It was called Magoun then, but, I think they call it "McGowen" now, and it was right off of Olive Street. Then we went to school there, and that is where I graduated from and then went on to Bloomington High School. And I only went three years because I had a very, very bad scald on my leg when I was in my junior year. And I had to stay home for an extended amount of months, and I just didn't go back. So then I just went to work. |
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| MP |
So what kind of work did you do initially?
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| RW |
Well, I did house work at that time.
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| MP |
You weren't very old then were you?
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| RW |
No, I was only thirteen, I would go out and help somebody like after school and go on
Saturday. I remember I even helped a lady on West Locust Street. He was a blacksmith, and I used to go over and help her, and she didn't pay me very much, but I liked to work for her. (Inaudible)] were nice. And then when I got into high school, I worked for the Three Sister Dress Shop [310 E. Mulberry}. |
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| MP |
What did you do there?
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| RW |
I pressed the clothes and hung them up, uncrated everything you know, and brought everything up to be hung (inaudible), and then in the evening when the store closed, I vacuumed. For four dollars a week. I worked there after school every night. Four dollars a week. |
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| MP |
And that was a lot of money then.
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| RW |
It was. Then there was a lady her name was Ruth Kaplan-she was the manager, and one time
she messed up my money and I got very angry with her. And she wouldn't pay me when it was payday, and I had to go home and get my father and bring him up there to get my money. And I told her I was mad at her and wouldn't work for her no more. I quit. |
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| MP |
You are a pretty assertive lady.
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| RW |
Oh yeah, I had a very bad temper. Then after that, I just did housework on Saturdays.
And I remember I worked for a family, the Ronald (unintelligible) and I used to go there and work. They always wanted me to a lot of cooking. And I wasn't really experienced, I could do a little cooking at home. But like when it came to pies and things like that, I wasn't experienced, but he would let do it. And he would say it was so good, and I knew it was a mess. But I worked for them for quite a while. This was when I was sixteen. I started going with Mr. Waddell at that time. He thought I was quite was young-I mean older than I was. He used to would come get me of an evening after supper. He get me and bring me home. My junior year I was seventeen so then I went out to Country Club, and I worked for the Davis family, and I really liked it out there. And we had a cateress here in town-she has passed away now. |
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| MP |
Was this a Black lady?
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| RW |
This was a Black lady.
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| MP |
What was her name?
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| RW |
Her name was Mrs. Henderson, and she lived on the corner of Oak and Jackson Street. She
was a good cook. Whenever they had any big thing, they would hire her to come out and cook, and I would work with her. |
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| MP |
Now this Country Club was once owned by the Davis' right?
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| RW |
No, they just owned a part of it, but then they owned everything around it.
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| OW |
The Country Club-the nine acres they got now, they owned it.
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| RW |
Everything where the shopping center is clear over to Empire Street, Washington Street,
Oakland Avenue and Veterans Parkway they owned all of that. And if you go Oakland Avenue to Mercer and you turn left, right on the corner is where Mrs. Pillsbury lived. The white house with the awnings. But then there is a little buff (inaudible) house next to her, and this is where David, the father, and the mother, lived. Then if you go past their drive and look through to the right and you will see a white house and they have a big awning over a big dining room window and this is Bob Davis and that's where I worked at. But then they owned all that ground. When you go around the curve, it says "dead end" if you go in there and when you go in there the first house to the right was the Davis's daughter, and she was married to Dan Holder. But now they've built a big house back. The last house I think on the left-hand side of the street. It's a real big place right off the golf course. But they used to run a hardware store. Mr. Holder did. So they had lots of money, and they have been in insurance and everything down that line. I enjoyed working for them. |
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| MP |
How long did you work for them?
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| RW |
I worked for them until I got married. But when I got married, my husband was in the
sanctified church, and he didn't want me to work. |
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| OW |
I wasn't in the church then.
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| RW |
No, but you came and you were born and raised in it, and you didn't want me to work. My
husband was quite [inaudible whisper]. He worked nights at the bus barn, and he worked 5:00 [PM] to 1:30 [AM]. And we lived over a little tavern-the Nathan's Tavern. And we just had two rooms because he lived there before we got married, and he had a bedroom. And then when we got married Quilla Smith owned it, which is our sister-in-law's father, and he gave us another room. |
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| MP |
He owned the tavern you mean?
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| RW |
No-well, he owned the whole place except the tavern, but he owned that big building
[1101 West Washington] right at the railroad track on West Washington Street. He owned all of that, and it was all into apartments. And Mr. Al Nathan had the tavern, but there was a Black barber shop in there and that was owned by Aquilla Smith, too. And it was run by Adolph Young and Catherine Young . |
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| MP |
There are Black people, right?
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