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55

And I still have my sunflower hat because when M s. Stavely retired, she called Dulsy Fisher and me in to her classroom, and she fOlll1d it packed in a box, with our names on it. ..

[I was born] January 18th, 1931. .. My grandfather went to 55 school. We had four generation s in 55 . ..

They had a fresh-air class . If you were 1.lllderweight, you had to go. Wen, I was never lll1derweight. .. My sister was. And she had to go ... You would lie on Anny cots. And you would wear these Navy blue, great big turtle-neck sweaters ... And they'd open the doors . .. [to] fresh air. And they'd give the children a hot meal. And then you'd lie down, so that you would not burn all your calories up nmning back and forth to school. And my sister had to do this for a year, and she was very lU1happy... TIlls was from the school board .. .

I remember--we were so fortlUlate that we didn't have any . r raids in this country. But I do remember ... they were going to send you home if they had an air-raid drill. And I remember nmning down the street screaming and c:rying, because the sirens were blowing. . . And ... a man up on Chestnut Avenue told me not to cry. It wasn't for real. ..

Then, I remember we wore dog tags ... plastic dog tags arolll1d our neck. . . Every mother was responsible for that dog tag to be on that child... And then this teacher checked to be sure you had your dog tag . .. M s. Stavely ... I remember her getting all of us kids down in the basemen t of the school. ..And that's where we were during one air raid drill. And all of our dog tags, we were told to pull them outside. It was very scary ...

And I think it was a marvelous school. .. We had some of the best teachers in the city.. . And I can still see my kindergarten room--Ms. Sta ely sitting in a rocking chair. And this is where she read our stories. And we had just a rug--no chairs . .. We sat on this great big rug in the middle of the floor, and she sal rocking in her rocking chair. And when she retired from 55 Schoo1--I used to work up there--several of us mothers went together and bought her a bracelet, and on the bracelet we put a rocking chair and a little bo and a girl. ..

My sister moved out in Hillendale. But the two of us just stayed in Hampden... I tell you, a lot of them are moving back in., too.

E,nma (Spicer ) Fedorchak

726

Emma Fedorchak pent only a f ew years ofher childJuxi in Stone Hill. Her mother bore 'eventeen children, including three pair. oftwins. Two of the pairs and one other child died young, and when the f ather also died, Emma was sent with two ofher siblings to an orphanage.

Years later the mocher, Emma. and several ofher siblings returned and lived Oil Brick HilL Emma lives today with her second husband in Essex, where I visited her, and where she grows cotton, among other plants. in her garden and makes intricate wooden cut-outs for sale.

[I was bam in] 1916. .. I was about nine years old [when my father died] .. . See, when he died, my mother had thirteen children yet. .. Grace, Lillian . .. William ... Mary ... Norman ... [called] "Horkie" ... He wa a ball player... Jarnes--we used to call him "Jiggie." .. 1bere was Charles ... and Ruth ... they were twins... Howard ... Erruna... My father used to call me Jane ... but nobody else called me Jane; just my father ... My

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mother's name was Emma... Marcella ... and 1beda... lbat's ... t\velve. Wait a minute . . . 1bat must 11a e been all of them . . .

Grace, she bad seven children . . . Now you see when Grace grew up, being there was such a span between the oldest one and the youngest one my mother had babies w~n she was having babies . .. Two ofller children are 01 r than me. . .

I was born on Stone Hill. And then I remember living a Brick Hill. And I remember living on Clipper Road--used to be two old stone bouses up there, right across from the old mills... I think my mother told me [about my birthplace] ... I remember living on Brick Hill. in the front row--the big, high house . . .

[My father died oi1 double hernia .. . He worked at tre mill all his life . . . It was a time of the year that it was hard to get jobs and [Mother] just couldn't keep all these kids. So ... Howard, Emma and Marcella, we were pu t in the 1. O. O. F ... [in] Frederick . .. 'Theda stayed wi th Mom... Ruth and Charles--I don't know, because I stayed up there for seven ears, and I didn't hear from anybody after that .. . They ali got married about that time . ..

All' s left [toda ] is Theda and me and Howard and Ruth... My motber had seventeen children--three sets of twins. ..

My m othet'--most jolly person I ever met. . . he wasn't SkiflllY and she wasn't fa ... fd say about 5'3" . .. I never heard her get mad at anybody. Naturally, she laughed at all the kids ... Her father was a Methodist minister ... Ayers [was her maiden name] .. .

She used to bold prayer meetings in their bouse [726 Bay Street] ... And the neighbors used to come in and have Bible reacling and singing and all that. And I remember all the kids used to have to sit down--on the floor. And she played [tlle] piano. And her sister .. . played the accordion.

She was a very religious person. Strict religion ... You say s_t in her house, and ou get it across the mouili, believe me. I did it! One time, I said "Oh, Je-sus." And I saw that right band come out there so fas t. . . The back of the hand! . . So many of us got tllat, believe me! . .

I' ll tell you another place we u sed to Ii e. You know the old dog pound . .. We used to live tlJere . .. 11lere used to be an old man there--I think his name was Carroll... He owned the place, but my mother had three or four rooms . . . And we had a big garden there . .. And I still carry a scar .. . I was out in the garden--I bad a knife, and I saw a movie of Tom Mix, the way he peeled thi s carrot, and I thought I could do ito-but it missed...

It was Carroll's mansion, Clipper Road, Brick Hill, and StOlle Hill. lbat's the only four places I remember. And then the Odd Fellows' Home... I don't know why she moved so much. Maybe she run out of bedrooms.. .

She used to eli ide her children up-six little ones and six big ones. I remember that. TIle six big OlleS used to eat first, and then tile six little ones ate next. .. If my mother was living, tl1ere's lots of fuings I'd like to ask her, but it's too late ... I know it was four in a bed. .. I can't place them all, but I do remember two at the bottom, two at the top ...

I was ilie tomb y of the family . .. I used to play w ith all tl1e boys, ride ilie bikes, do anything the boys did ... Play marbles. I was right there with iliem... shootin' hoodles ...

[Moilier] told me. sro worked in tlle mill when she was eleven years old •.. All the millhands used to ... watch the Spicer kids .. . They used to say, when my

mother told us all to come in, there wasn't anybody left on tl1e Hill. .. M motl1er went out one night. And when she come back, she fOlmd a strange kid in bed. TIle old man didn't ... know wllat kids he bad! . . Somebody told me. I don't know if it' s a story or not. ..

[My activities were] Shooting marbles, playing in the mud. When we lived on Clipper Road--gymnastics, the bars .. . CbarI s used to be good at it. . . Charles used to walk on his hands... We had roller skates, wronever we could fmd a place to roller skate. I think she had one bicycle for six kic1s--took turns on that. .. We used to go out swirnming--DruidHill Park

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swimming--for a nickel. .. Charles used to go out there every day and swim... Then when he got older ... some black guy took a stick, and Charles said, "That's it. No more ." ..

[Charles] played the guitar and sang . . . Walked on his hands and played the mouth organ... He made a contraption; he put two bells on it; his muscles used to go like this and the bells would ring . .. He used to do all kind of crazy things ... He was built nice, and where er he went, he bad to stand on his hands and show off.. .

He went down to the bowling alley one time ... He got on his hands, and bowled with one hand. He had that whol bowling alley there, all the kids, watching him... Bill played guitar; Howard played guitar; H oward could play p iano ... My father played [the] ilute... There was music on both sides [of the family] .

Howard... He could sing anything. But he didn't have an body to encourage him. .. They picked it up on their own. .. Somebody'd gi e them a banjo, and they'd start pIa ing on it. .. Charles would play the guitar and sing, but he couldn't carry a tune ... SOlmd like Johnny Cash... Charles was always inventing some thing ... He was the character 0 the family ... He used to be quite a diver. .. He was the only one that was really athletic.

Nonnan was a ball player. All he thought about was baseball.. . Then Jiggie, be couldn't do nothing. He used to l.i.ke to go out to restaurants and dance, and when he'd get tired of dancing, he'd go back in the kitchen and do all the cooking for them.. . Even when he got married, he did all the cooking... Howard was the artist. Howard played guitar ... and he had a beautiful oice... Marcella could have been very artistic, bu t li..J.<p I said, there w s no encouragement. . .

I was in the Air Force for three years ... It had to be '43 ... [in] Engl~md and France ... I use d to like school. .. We went to 55 ... And we walked ... I think we u sed to pack

our llUlCh. I know we didn't come home. . ,1bere used to be a Salvation Anny place up there on Chestnut Avenue ... And we used to have to go to Salvation Army Sunday School. . . We'd go by ourself. . . In those days you could walk to 36th Stree t or go anyplace, and your parents wasn't worried about you. .. Not li..J.<p now.. .

I remember the Salvation Army because I used to love to sing--they used to call me the Gospel Singer ... Even when I come out from the Home and was working, I'd always sing hymns ... In the orphanage we had to sing three times every Sunday ... That's probably why it never left me... And whistle ! I used to whistle when I was little. My mother said, "Little girls don't whistle ! .. That's not like a girl! You don 't supposed to whistle when you're a girl! "

I've got a lot of things I do [that] none of my family do. I do all this hobby stuff. I cut all this out. .. [with] a band saw. Then I hand paint everything. Sell it. .. I'm gonna run out of space soon. I've got one up there made out of beercans--an airplane . . . I bought that in Cleveland... Takes eighteen cans--I'm gonna try to make one... I've got a garden out there. I do all my canning .. .

[\Ve had] a metal fence. I remember sitting on it when my father died... Because I know we didn't go to the funeral; there w as too many kids... It wasn' t long after that, we were put in the orphanage ...

We used to walk do~n there [to the mnill] at lunchtime... Sometimes take him Ilmch down ... and those guys down there would give us coffee ... You know how men are. Knowing he had so many kids, they'd give u s sandwiches or something . .. I remember going in tile mill--and all that racket in there--God! .. I don't know how--Mamie worked in there, Mamie Spicer ... She married Norman. Now, Norrmm was a truck driver for the mill for years... . I remember all around that hill--in front--used to be nothing but tulips. It used to be beautiful. .. Where the mill sits down in, there was nothing but tulips ... And I often thought, whatever happened to all those bulbs ... Then after the mill closed up, that went to pot. ..

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I remember another thing about the mill. .. You could smell the cotton all over the place . . . But I remember when we li ed on Brick Hill-from the Lower M ill down on Falls Road, \ve used 0 have a great big pipe ... and they used to blow the cotton from the FaUs Road up to the spinning room ... used to go right past the house. And if I had reached it, I'd probably have been up on top of it! ..

My mother had time for anything. . . he used to show us how to C1"ochet, but r m the only one that ever stuck to it. All the girls sew... [She taught us] how to make aprons ... I remember, we lived in Parkton, and she'd show us how to make bread and how to can stuff. .

She used to . . . beat up a brick in the oven, wrap it in material, go up there and mb it over the sheets, and then we got in bed. There w asn't any heat up in those rooms! . . Sometimes she'd put the brick in the middle ... and leave it there.. . As long as your feet were warm, everything was all right. ..

Many a time we had newspaper inbetween the covers .. . Newspaper will keep "' au warmer than a blanket. . . He .k. we never had a problem... 1bat was the Old Days.. . We had coal-oil lamps .. . No electric lights... I don't think they had gas ... I remember Mom used to heat the water on the stove for a bath. \Ve used to have an old wash tub...

[Uncle H arry] was my mother's brother. He used to be in the merchant marines. And he used to come home, and he'd bring a great big loaf of jewish rye and a jar of mayonnaise. That was a big treat for us kids in them days . And he'd bring all new pennies home, and give us each new pennies... He used to drink a lot. .. In those days, that was nothing. TIley all drank. . .

[Mother would] tie a little bag of bugs arOillld your neck. "Cough bugs" my mother used to call that. .. It's a liltle teensy bug--we see them around here a lot of times... And she used to put them in a little bag and hang them around our neck .. [for] colds, chest colds . She had more dam remedies that you could shake a stick at. ..

She probably couldn't even afford castor oil and that stuff. She had to u se the old-time remedies... Spices for diarrhea or bad stomach. .. I know she had twenty or thirty of them .. . But those two I do remember--the coal oil and sugar, and the bugs ... Imagine with all those kids. I'd probably die, with all those kids ...

I don't remember too much about my father, though. .. He was sort of quiet. He'd come horne and go to bed because he worked all day. And I remember one of the kids used to sit on his lap. . . t was--I was too busy outside. But I remember she used to bring us all in and wash us all all up . . .. We had to be washed every night before we went to bed.. . Nobody went to bed dirty .. .

No radios, n tele isions, no heat. TIlese kids've got it good nowadays, and don't know it. .. She mus t have had an alarm clock. .. I was only nine years old. I can't remember all that way back t.hen.. . Hot oatmeal all year long [for breakfast] . .. She'd get up and bake hot rolls or hot biscuits... [W e] must've had milk. ..

\\then I was a little girl, my mother 1i ed on Clipper Road. And she gave me a quarter. And we used to walk aC1"OSS that bridge over to the railroad tracks, and they used to have coal cars there. And any of the coal that had fallen on the ground, they'd sell a whole bushel of it for a quarter to us kids. And I'm going across that bridge, and I had an apple in m hand. And I went to throw the apple core in the river and I threw the quarter. Well I cried all the way home.

But I think she gave me another quarter to go back. We used to have to walk up there, and take a bushel ba~sket and carry the coal down Clipper Road... Fmmy how things stick to your mind. I was thinking about that bridge the other day ...

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When my father died, my mother had twel e kids. Well, 1 think a couple of them were married' r m not sure. But there was no food stamps, no Welfare. In other words, she had to go out and scrub floors and all that in order to make money. The only one that helped my mother was the Salvation Anny. . . , he used to send us up there and they'd give us cookies and things like that.

AIid a lot of tirnes the neigh ors would pitch in and give us something . . . Mom's friends ... They didn't live on Stone Hill; they lived up Keswick Road. And she used to have cake and stuff and bring it down to us. Maybe left-over cake . ..

And 1 remember eatin::. coffee bread with sugar. lbat was our breakfast. When 1 tell my kids that, they say, "Oh Mom, you're making it up ." I say, "No I'm not either--a slice of bread, coffee on it and sugar." .. 1 remember wany a time we had bread and hot water, salt and pepper... You tell kids that nowadays; they throw bread out --won't even throw it to the birds... But we ate; we didn't starve; we were all fat. .. She used to make bread a lot, too... At least you could get flour . . . Used 0 II1ake soup . ..

1 do remember, she went to the store when she lived on Clipper Road... There was a littl hill there.. . 1 know she had a pound of sugar and a jar of vinegar in her lu'Ul(~ and she was coming back, and there was a storm, and lightning struck her. And she was out of her mind. . . She come home and wanted to know where the refrigerator come from... So she bad a rough life, but to see her and know her before she died, you'd never know it. ..

Going away and going to Frec1eri k, that didn't stick in my mind for some reason. 1 know it didn't bother me.. . But 1 know she didn't get up there often. 1 think 1 saw my mother twice in seven years. You know, no car no trains or anything run up there. But that didn't bother me... Charles ... he said he was ricling freight trains all the time. And Ruth, 1 think she was working for some woman in her house. And she took the baby with her, Theda. Then after that 1 don't remember too much. . . Maybe a letter or two 1 got from ber .. .

[In Frederick] 1 was the nly girl on the baseball team. .. [I played] outfield . .. And when 1went to high school, 1 was on all the athletic teams. And we used to travel all over the countryside . .. Braddock Heights, Lonaconing, H agerstown ... through the hig,.1.:t-sch001 program.

But after we got to the orphanage, then after supper 1 was the only girl that would play baseball. So 1enjo ed that part of it. 1 enjoyed every bit of it. It didn't bother me; no resentfulness or anything because 1 was put in there. Because 1 really enjoyed it. Matter of fact, 1 think it was the best part of my life. You know, a place to eat and a nice bed--never had that when we were little. So 1 guess you appreciated it, not knowing you appreciated it--but you did...

My mother got married again. She married an olel man s she could bring us home.. . And then after we got home, we couldn't go to school, because we didn't have any money.. . That was in Parkton, M aryland. . . TIle old man? He was just an old man... He had a little garden, and nobody was allowed in it. And he'd play cards at night and get mad if he didn't win. You know how people are. But he was good to her... He died .. . And then she moved back to Baltimore ...

s kids got together and got a house on Brick Hill. . . Jiggie and Marcella and Theda and Charles and me, we all got a house . . . 1 must have been about twenty . .. 1 don't know where Mom lived at--Mom live d with us, yeal because one night she was sitting up worrying about US kids coming in, and she had the wrong night. .. Here we were in bed! ..

1 wanted to finish high school. So, 1 went ... to work [at] Bermett Food Company-­u sed to be on Sisson Street. . . In those days, you didn't work ei ght hours a day . .. You worked the way they wanted you to work. So I worked ten, twel e hours a day. 1 couldn't finish high school. Because I wanted to go to night school, but I couldn't do it. . . (I earned] twenty cen t an hour. Well, that was big money them days .. . [I stayed] e ight years .. . TIlen 1 joined the Army ...

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Jiggi.e ... was more of a housekeeper than the rest of us at the time. I think it was Jiggie that put it [got s] tog ther.. . I think he was a machinist ... at Poole's .. . We used to go out together on Friday nights ... Probably Frazier's or I don't think it--it was Tony's at the time. . . Tony Litzinger's . .. We used to go to the movies once in a while; then we'd go dancing once in a while... There wasn't too many dance places in Hampden, that I know of. Yau had to go in town. . .

I remember one night I come home: by myself; m walking do\Vl1 that hill at Darby Street. .. A darn lion roared out in the park. . . And it sOlmded like he was right behind a tree. I froze . . . I was paralyzed. .. It smmded so loud. I guess, not the mill running, and everything's quiet at night--about 2 o'clock in the morning ...

I remember [at Christmas] we got a stocking and an apple in it and em orange in it and maybe a couple of nuts, and one toy. I remember that. .. The only thing I remember is one teddy bear. Bu t we only got one toy .. . \Ve had a tree .. . But it was nothin like the kids nowadays--two thousand dollars at Christmas--it's terrib le . . . There are some things ... you just don't remember . .. I don' t remember Easter. Maybe-- [Mom] used to dress us up and take us up to the Salvation Army . .. We had to be dressed 1m. Vole never wore shoes--only on Sunday . . .

When I was young, I don't think I had any miserable times. I was too busy . .. [The best times:] probably, going out to the swimming pool--out in Druid Hill Park--walked--a{'""To s the bridge . .. I think it was a nickel then--spent al l day .. .

I'll tell you one thing I remember. You know where Noxema is? .. Well, it was that road right there. Jiggie or one of the kids made us a hobbyhorse. TIle wheels were made out of wood.. It was one of those sit-down, like go-cart thillg . Only, when they put it t gelber, the hole in the middle wasn't in the middle. And when you went down that hill ... it would go up and dmvn like tins . .. 1bat's the only thing I remember that was really funny ...

1bat Carroll mansion. .. I remember living there... [Mr. Carroll] used to take a typewriter and draw pictures on the typewriter .. . And then I think he died while we were there . .. But

r ve been wondering, who was he, because they have a Carroll mansion in to\Vl1... Earl Hood

Earl Hood

728

Earl Hood was born in 1912, the oldest child ofhis facher's, if! afamily that experienced great hardship. During the two se sions we had together at his home in north Baltimore, he poured out a rich SlOre ofmemories from the part, and fre ely criticized both himselfaf/d the times he had lived through A member oi the Hoodfamily, he was related to several ofthe people I inten iewed who had lived on Field STeel.

[My mother was] Pearl Hood ... [who married] Earl Hood... (Her maiden name] was Carey. .. he came from, tone Hill. And actually her family came from Ellicott City. 1bat was owned by the mills... When she married n y father, my grandmother [Lomie Hood] and them lived in the 2900 b lock of Keswick Road.. . I was born there . .. My father worked in the mills--they all worked in the mills--and he took one of the houses over [in Stone Hill] and my grandmother, they moved to Field Street. ..