Happiness and Hard Times

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  General Paschal N. Strong

  Donna Thomas and Debbie Ulmer

  A graduate of West Point at the age of 20, General Strong is a man of wide experiences, as an Army engineer, adventurer, and writer of stories. "I wrote a lot of sports stories, a lot of sailing stories, a lot of mountain stories. I wrote about everything."

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  Miss Ruth Davenport

  Becky Pruitt

  Now 70 years old, Miss Davenport recalls the depression days in Savannah. "It put so many men out of work, good men who wanted to work. It drove a lot of good men to the devil. But I also think that hard times had their place. I mean, they also helped bring families together..."

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  Mr. Anthony Ryan

  Donna Thomas

  Mr. Ryan talks about the economic changes of River Street from 1932 - 1973. "The buildings are very unique. They are 4 and 5 stories tall. They were built in the early 1800's for cotton warehouses. The lower levels were used to store cotton and the main street or Bay Street level was the office and the level above it was used as the hotel for the planters to come and stay when they came to do business."

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  Mr. A.R. Cordson

  Tom Fuller and Becky Pruitt

  Mr. Gordson is 83 and remembers coming to Savannah as a child. "When we came to Savannah, we moved in a nice location and hell, there was some Irish boys, some Jew boys, and we all had a few scraps but we got along, remarkably well." He also talks about the construction industry which has undergone many changes.

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  Mr. Ben Mitchell

  Twila Haygood

  He is now 65 years old, but Mr. Mitchell came to Savannah during the Depression years as a young man to find construction work. "Yeah and railroad in the area as a young man. Work on Southern railroad and the Coastline railroad... It was hard work but I was a young man."

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  Mr. David Cribbs

  Donna Thomas

  Mr. Cribbs vividly describes his boyhood stay at Bethesda Home for Boys during the 1930's. "Our school day was a little bit different from what you know. Our school day started about eight o'clock in the morning and we went until two in the afternoon, and then worked the rest of the day. We went to school continuously through July."

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  Mr. Frank Rossiter

  Becky Pruitt

  Mr. Rossiter is a native Savannahian who talks about his boyhood in the Irish section of town. He talks about the newspapers, local politics, and his love of Savannah. "I'd rather be a fiddler in Savannah than a harpist in heaven."

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  Mr. Herbert Haygood

  Twila Haygood

  Mr. Haygood is a 65 year old retired railroad employee who has lived in and around Savannah most of his life. He describes the hard conditions for a black worker in the past decades. "I was working for a farmer in the county [for] eight dollars a month. Eight dollars and dinner for a month's work."

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  Mr. James E. Taylor

  Debbie Ulmer and Donna Thomas

  Mr. Taylor, a black educationalist, talks about the problems of getting a higher education for blacks. "I'm afraid there is some disdain accorded to quote 'Black Professionals' unquote. Many people seem to engender a feeling of distrust."

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  Mr. John C. Gardner

  Debbie Ulmer

  Now a retail merchant, Mr. Gardner has had many adventures. He was a member of the Army Air Corps in World War II and saw combat in North Africa and the Far East.

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  Mr. M.C. Pruitt

  Becky Pruitt

  Mr. Pruitt has lived in Savannah since 1926. He remembers during his childhood visiting the Tin City section of town. "There were literally hundreds of homes where the Negro population lived. They built these homes out of tin and cardboard and wood or whatever. Some of them were no more than four by four. These were stuck back in among the mangrove and elderberry swamps along the Savannah River."

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  Mr. Reppard L. Thomas

  Donna Thomas

  Mr. Thomas describes what it was like to be a bus and streetcar operator in Savannah for 37 years. "And you met some mighty nice people, some mighty rugged people. Of all section, of all kinds; preachers, down to gangsters. And you had to treat a passenger as a passenger."

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  Mr. Robert L. Deaux

  Debbie Ulmer and Donna Thomas

  Mr. Deaux, a former Air Force officer, discusses his hobby, gem cutting.

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  Mrs. Agnes Brigdon

  Debbie Ulmer

  Mrs. Brigdon's father was a game warden for Henry Ford's Plantation in Kilkenny. She remembers the place and the man "... he was just like you and I. All his money didn't make him any different from nobody."

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  Mr. Sam Jones, Mr. Bruce Washington, Mr. Herman Johnson, Mr. Rick Morgan

  Thomas Fuller

  This was a group interview of four members of the Black American Movement (B.A.M.) of Armstrong State College expressing their views on the movement in Savannah.

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  Mrs. Bessie Haygood

  Twila Haygood

  Mrs. Haygood is a black, middle-aged wife and mother who came to Savannah when segregation was at its height. "I remember the time when the boycott was on Broughton Street we would have sit-ins there and a lot of my people was hurt. A lot of police here were brutal to them. And I didn't like the idea of them putting gas and water hoses on our people."

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  Mrs. Betty Pruitt

  Becky Pruitt

  Mrs. Pruitt tells of the mutual help needed during the Depression years. "Everyone would help each other and all. I can remember Momma and the lady down the street exchanging food stamps if one had what the other wanted."

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  Mrs. Ethel Lee Lanon

  Twila Haygood

  Mrs. Lanon has been in Savannah since the end of the Depression. She talks about church groups in the 1940's.

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  Mrs. Evelyn Davis

  Donna Thomas and Debbie Ulmer

  Mrs. Davis talks about the depression, the Ford Plantation in Richmond Hill, and the hard times of those lean years. "And there was times that you would wonder where the next meal was actually going to come from. It was just hard times."

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  Mrs. Fennell

  Donna Thomas

  Mrs. Fennell describes her memories of early Savannah as being that of a pleasant town. "I remember ladies in long dresses, large picture hats and gloves and men with derbies and canes promenading down Bull Street and through Forsyth Park. Womankind maintained a proper decorum in those days and held fast to their femininity."

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  Mrs. Jones

  Donna Thomas

  Mrs. Jones came to Savannah in 1926 and got her first job. "The first job I had was working at Adlers on Dollar Days. You worked 12 hours for one dollar." She talks about life in the 30's, food stamps, and running a service station in 1945.

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  Mrs. Josephine Taylor

  Becky Pruitt

  Mrs. Taylor talks about the old city market, Tybee Island, the Prohibition Era in Savannah, and the joy of living in the city. "Savannah is like an old shoe. The longer you wear it the better it fits."

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  Mrs. Laudess James

  Debbie Ulmer

  Mrs. James has lived in Savannah for 65 years. She vividly describes the city market. "They'd have Negro women there with big old baskets of cooked crab and shrimp and they'd put them on their head and walk in the streets hollering, 'Yeah Crabs! Yeah Shrimps!' going on like that."

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  Mrs. Lucille Myer

  Donna Thomas

  Mrs. Myer was a W.P.A. fieldworker during the hard years of the 1930's, serving in school cafeterias.

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  Mrs. Madie Dixion

  Twila Haygood

  During the 1960's Mrs. Dixion took part in the integration efforts in Savannah. Now a wife and mother, she comments on a hopeful future. "I would like to see more blacks come to Armstrong. I would like to see more whites attend Savannah State. I would like to see both colleges get together and be known as one here in Savannah."