Sadie Parks Community: Glouster Date: May 15, 1998 Interviewer: Brandy Spencer

What was it like in downtown Glouster?   

00:00:07:    Growing up in Athens County. It was very hard, there was nothing but coal mine. There were a lot of immigrants from overseas. They were good people and working hard.

00:01:50:     School was very strict, I went to one-room school.   There was no road, no highway;  you just have to walk. It was very cold.  Teachers were not allowed to smoke, they were not allowed to divorce. They had to stay married when they got married.

00:03:15:     Today school, teachers smoke and send a signal to children that it’s alright, but it’s not alright.

00:04:06:     Things for fun: We didn’t have any fun. Before we went to school and when we came back we have to work.

00:05:11:     I never had a job.

00:05:20:     I move down to Glouster when I was 16 years old. Glouster was a very beautiful place. It had every store that you could think of. It had dress shops, shoe stores for men and women. They have all kinds of stuffs. It was a very proper place.

00:06:11:     And when the coal mine went out, they took everything with them. Then what we have is the result that is today.  The company came here to make the money and then go.

00:07:45:     Everything you should do is for your own sake. You shouldn’t depend on the government, the government is corrupted.

00:08:00:     In the country we live right now. It was 200 years old. And it had Indian War, Civil War, the First World War, Second World War, Korean War, Vietnam war, Dog War. What do you gain? The government talks about liberty.

00:08:32:     We don’t have any liberty anymore because we can’t do anything without paying a fee to the government or to the state. Everything that they say they give us. It’s already our money because they tax to death.

00:10:19:     Everything is not gonna be easy. That’s what I’m gonna say about kids today. We could just teach them that you have to be self reliance; just me and myself, and I have to do the best that I can do to make my own way.

00:10:43:     All we have are 7 kids. We never had on welfare, we never had nothing. We never had our own utilities in our house. We had to wash on the washboard. Now people got everything but they say I don’t have time to do anything. But they got washer, dryer, they got everything electrified.

00:11:22:     When Roosevelt came in, he was a good man. He could have been there forever. Just when they came in, the first thing he made was shut down the bank. He said if you don’t make it safe for people who deposit their money, you’re not open up no more.

00:12:10:     If you don’t make job for this people, you go down to Athens Managers and ads in New York Times, or newspapers in this area to find out the jobs. There wasn’t any job because the people, they was concentration on their wealth.

00:15:00:     The money that the state wants to give us was our money already. We are taxed to death and the money goes to stadium and stuff like that. We’re sick to death; they give money to somebody else.

00:17:00:    The world that you live in, you have to do it yourself because it’s gonna be really really tough.

00:17:15:    If you ever get married, don’t marry somebody just because you want get married.

00:17:40:    Family value...

00:21:50:    Chores: I can’t even remember when I didn’t work. I did all kinds of stuffs.

00:25:00:    Story telling: Most people have migrated from West Virginia. They had no access to school. Everything go to story that they tell and they tried to make people scared to death from their stories.

00:26:10:    Sex is something you are to control. You’ll not let it control you. You control it.

00:26:30:    If a man takes you out to have sex. It’s just like an animal. They can get anything they can get. That’s how they treat the women nowadays. It’s a different world because you had sex with somebody because you loved him and when you love him you dedicate to him.

00:27:21:    I never drive until I was 49 years old, we couldn’t afford a car.

00:32:26:    Government are people who have power. It starts at local level. Look at our town, we’re not doing anything, we’re not standing up and said we need to get this done to make our town beautiful again. If we stuff together, we can make it.

00:34:31:    We have to have an initiative. You want to make your county better or you want it the way it is. I don’t want to live like that.

00:36:00:    In the past, the grocery store was very beautiful. People were so nice to you. The stuff you get today, you pay a big price but it was cheap. It’s not worth.

00:37:00:    There were a lot of people dressed in different styles. But God looks in your heart. You can be able to be beautiful on the outside but you have the bad thing that you shouldn’t do. Then you destroy yourself.

00:38:10:    We had one pair of shoes to wear in winter time. And in summer time, we went barefoot.

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