Interview with Blanche MacAdoo Yetter, 1984 May 30 [audio](part 2)
- Father's funeral; quarantines and childhood diseases; dancing; Fourth of July celebrationsKeywords: dancing; diphtheria; Du Pont, S. Hallock (Samuel Hallock), 1901-1974; Fourth of July; funerals; funerary customs; Green Hill Presbyterian Church (Wilmington, Del.); Mt. Salem United Methodist Church (Wilmington, Del.); Saint Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church (Wilmington, Del.); whooping coughTranscript: Wagner: You said they were laid out in the parlor?
Yetter: Yes.
Wagner: The women would sit in the parlor?
Yetter: Yes. The men would be either in the kitchen or out on the back porch smoking. White clay pipes.
Wagner: I wonder what was the significance of that?
Yetter: I don't know. The children all got the clay pipes and would blow bubbles with them afterward. The fathers all saved them for the children.
Wagner: What about wreaths on the doors?
Yetter: That's where they used to drape -- They had big -- what did they call them? Big bunch of ribbons with streamers. They weren't flowers. Crepe -- they called them crepes. The undertaker brought and put -- nailed it on the side of your door. That's when you knew there was a funeral at that house. Crepes they were called. And it was just a bunch of ribbons with some long streamers.
Wagner: Was there a service at the home? Did the minister come and --
Yetter: Yes. Had services at home. before. They had a viewing right Did they call viewings wakes then? Well, the Catholics called them wakes because the Catholics stayed up all night, but the Protestants didn't. They would have a wake and everybody would go home after nine o'clock and the people would go to bed. But the Catholics had somebody sit with the corpse all night. They never left them. They had somebody there all the time.
Wagner: And where would you be buried usually? If you lived in Squirrel Run where did they bury you?
Yetter: Well, ours was Greenhill or the Methodists had Mt. Salem. And the Episcopals didn't have a cemetery because the duPonts had their own private one, and they had then to be buried in Mt. Salem or Greenhill or if they were Catholic, in St. Joseph's cemetery.
Wagner: For the viewing did people come and eat food? Was food a big part?
Yetter: No, not in those days. Later years people began to have a dinner when the people came back and then when they began to go to the funeral homes after that they done away with the dinner. They didn't have the people come back. And I don't think people come back nowadays -- maybe some of the old-fashioned people do. But as a rule they don't have a big party -- turn it into a big party, you know.
Wagner: When childhood diseases came, did they quarantine the children -- measles epidemic or whooping cough?
Yetter: No they weren't quarantined when I was little. That came later years when I was probably -- well, I had a half sister died with diphtheria. But I was 19 -- 18 years old when she died. And they had a sign on our door then for diphtheria.
Wagner: And whooping cough?
Yetter: No, they didn't quarantine for that, but since that -- after that for a good many years they had signs. The Board of Health put them on. I don't believe they quarantine for anything anymore, do they?
Wagner: No, they don't. Dancing. Did you go dancing?
Yetter: No, not when I was young. Only Fourth of July and St. Joseph's Church always had a picnic up where Halleck duPont later built his home. And they had a picnic up there and they'd put stands up around the trees -- go from one tree to the other -- and they had soft drinks and ice cream and things that they sold and candy and they always had one thing back on one side where the men would throw -- hit the nigger in the head and you'd get a five-cent cigar. And there was a hole there and they would hire a black man to come out, put his face there and when the ball would come, he would kinda jump. I don't know how many hit him. If they hit him in the head, they got a five-cent cigar. And they had to pay to buy the balls to throw at him. So that was one of the things for the men. And that day I got a quarter spending money. And then I had to figure how was I going to divide that up. Five cents for a bottle or root beer and five cents for an ice cream cone and I would stretch it out all day because we would be up there at ten o'clock in the morning and stay until dark. And duPonts sent the lumber up and their carpenters and built a dance floor and a stand for the orchestra -- for the orchestra that played for the dance -- and they danced in the afternoon and then they had a rest period and come back and danced after dinner until dark.
Wagner: What kind of dancing did you do? Was it two by two? Was it closed dancing or was it square dancing?
Yetter: They did square dancing and close in those days. And if you were a good dancer, you were a smooth dancer. You didn't jump around like they do today. If you were a good dancer, you just -- I had an aunt who was a good dancer and my mother was and my father and they always danced.
Wagner: And you enjoyed dancing?
Yetter: Well, we kids got out on the dance floor then, you know. In our way I guess.
Wagner: But you did it anyhow. - First automobile ride; daily household life; buying furniture; meals; head lice epidemicsKeywords: automobiles; buying furniture; cars; Fels Naphtha soap; flocks; Hagley Powder Yard; head lice; Henry Clay (Del. : Village); home repair; house fires; ice cream; Jake Twaddell; linoleum; mattresses; money; Octagon soap; riding in cars; Rockland, Delaware; Sears Roebuck and Company; Squirrel Run; toilet paper; vacations; World War OneTranscript: Wagner: How about - let's see. House repair. You said that the women papered the wall but duPont kept up the outside of the house?
Yetter: Yes. Yes.
Wagner: Where was your first automobile ride? Who gave you your first automobile ride? Do you remember your first automobile ride?
Yetter: Well, I think maybe one of the chauffeurs for one of the duPonts was coming along sometime when I was walking and he picked me up and gave me a ride up the road or something. I thought I was big sitting up in front with a chauffeur.
Wagner: I guess so. Do you remember the car?
Yetter: No - it was a big open car and they had open cars. They weren't sedans like today. They had tops that come up for storms - I think they could pull the tops up. But it was open when I had a ride with him. That was the first ride I had.
Wagner: And he took you from home to school.
Yetter: Well, I think I was standing around the post office or some place in Henry Clay and he brought me up to maybe the entrance to Squirrel Run and dropped me and then he went on up Barley Mill Road then on back to wherever he came from - whichever duPonts he worked for. I happened to know him and he knew me or he wouldn't have picked me up.
Wagner: What about allowances? Did children get allowances?
Yetter: No, we didn't have any allowance. Got a quarter on Fourth of July. That's the only day I remember getting any money. Oh, maybe somebody would give you a couple pennies. And there was an ice cream man came around in the summertime - I think maybe once a week - Saturday - and if you had two cents, you could get two cents worth of ice cream. And he made his own ice cream. His name was Jake Twaddell and he lived up near Rockland, up over the hills there someplace and he came on Saturday and you took your saucer and your teaspoon out with you. And he would dig in with a big cooking spoon and give you a big spoonful for two cents. And you'd sit right down there and eat it. It Was the best ice cream you ever tasted in your life.
Wagner: I'll bet. What about vacations? Did families go on vacation together?
Yetter: No. No one had vacations.
Wagner: Did the Company give vacations?
Yetter: No.
Wagner: Everyone just worked all the time?
Yetter: Just worked all the time. The only vacation you got was if you were sick. You stayed home, but you didn't go away on vacations or anything - not then. That didn't start until after the first World War. See, that's when the world changed.
Wagner: I had a friend of my mother's. She just passed away. She was 97. And she said the stock was so much better before World War I. She might have something there.
Yetter: You wonder if it changed for better or for worse.
Wagner: That just reminded me - she was funny about that.
Wagner: Music lessons? You didn't take any?
Yetter: No, not unless you had a piano.
Wagner: House fires. What local fire company - if a fire happened, how did you go about putting out a fire? Did you have a fire company close by?
Yetter: No. I think they had something in the yard - in the Hagley Yard that the men would pull. And just everybody would rush out and help - all the people.
Wagner: As best you could.
Yetter: As best you could. I didn't want to get started on the barn rash, but I'll tell you about it later when you shut the thing off.
Wagner: O.K. [Laughter]. What about toilet paper? Did they have things like paper towels and toilet paper?
Yetter: No. The toilet paper was the Sears-Roebuck catalog or one of those old big catalogs that you got once a year. You saved that and that was up in the toilets. You just tore a sheet off when you needed it. [Laughter].
Wagner: Who made the big decisions? Say you were going out to buy something big for the house - a new settee for the kitchen. Who decided?
Yetter: Well, they didn't buy very many in those days because they knew when they got married, they bought their furniture and they didn't change like they do today. They kept those all their life.
Wagner: Did duPont furnish the houses?
Wagner: No. You bought your own furniture.
Yetter: Yes. You bought your own furniture.
Wagner: And if you needed a new mattress or something, your mother and father - When the other one wore out so much, you got a new one.
Yetter: And in fact, I guess a good many people used to use corn husk. Not that I know of in my house, but my grandmother had flocks - they called them flocks - and she would have to shake the mattress and spread them all out - they would lump up, you know - and they were called flocks. And then the mattresses came in style then and when she got enough money, she put new mattresses on the beds - one at a time.She had six beds, so she would buy one mattress at a time when one of these flocks wore out. But I never heard that some of them used the corn husks and they used to shred them and make them fine to put in beds. They told me they done that. I never slept on one.
Wagner: It seems like they would come right through, unless the material -
Yetter: Well, they used ticking, you know. They put them in ticking. They could buy ticking in those days. Like they use today.
Wagner: How elaborate was supper? Did you come in to supper and have meat, potatoes and vegetables and salad?
Yetter: No, we didn't have salads unless it was summer when you had sliced tomatoes. But we didn't have salads all year round. Your main meal was meat, potatoes and a vegetable. And that was it. And one night a week you had vegetable soup. You didn't have anything else, but everything was in that. Another night you had ham and cabbage and the potatoes boiled in with it. And that would be one night a week. Those are the two things I remember maybe and usually you had a roast on Sunday.
Wagner: A roast - not chicken?
Yetter: No. Because the butcher would come on Saturday and we would have a roast on Sunday. And then they would use that up on Monday whatever was left over. And my grandmother made what she called hash which is something like a beef stew — - and I hated it. I never liked hash because we knew we had to eat that on Monday. [Laughter].
Wagner: My mother used to do that - you'd put it over toast and it was pretty good.
Yetter: So that's the way she would make her meals up that way.
Wagner: You don't recall anybody having linoleum on the floor? When did that come in?
Yetter: That didn't come in until - well, I was bigger when they got that. I think maybe my grandmother did before I left there. I think she finally did do away with the rag carpet in the kitchen and had linoleum on the floor.
Wagner: Homemade soap?
Yetter: No, they didn't make soap in my day.
Wagner: Octagon soap. Do you remember Octagon? Or Fels Naphtha?
Yetter: Fels Naphtha is what my grandmother used. There was Bee soap and I think maybe Octagon at the time. and Fels Naphtha. But she always used Fels Naphtha. And she didn't have soap powder; she chipped that up and put it in the boiler and it would turn all soft, you know, and that's what she used to do her wash with.
Wagner: When she did her wash, did she put the boiler on the stove?
Yetter: Yes. She boiled all her sheets and all her white clothes. She thought they had to be boiled to disinfect them - to kill all germs.
Wagner: In school, did you ever get lice epidemics or do you recall anything like that?
Yetter: Yes they did because my grandmother - my mother used to be watching my head all the time for fear I would get them. And every once in awhile she would get a comb and comb my hair, you know, and look through it. If she saw me scratching my head, she would grad a hold of me.
Wagner: It's always don't wear anybody else's hat.
Yetter: Oh, we always were told never to put on other people's hats. We were always told that.
Wagner: And go to the movies don't lean back against the seat.
Yetter: We didn't get to the movies too often. - Breck's Mill community house; learning how to become a dress maker; ice; home remedies; photography; dealing with summer heatKeywords: apprenticeships; Breck's Mill community house; dentistry; dressmaking; Du Pont, Alfred I. (Alfred Irenee), 1864-1935; home remedies; photography; screen doors; screen windows; summerTranscript: Wagner: Do you remember Breck's Mill community house?
Yetter: No, that was closed in my days. They didn't open that until later years. I think maybe it was the first World War when they opened anything, but all my life it was closed. But that's when my father worked downstairs with Mr. Alfred I. before he took sick, and that's what my mother told me -- that he was working there and it kinda' blew up and burned his beard off. And he didn't have a beard, but he never had to shave. My mother said he didn't have to shave because it went right up the front of him and then he would only have to shave a little bit on the side. But it must have burnt the roots out. I don't know that he had any scars but my mother always said he didn't have to shave very much.
Wagner: We did talk about the wringer for the washer. Clotheslines. When you went to learn your trade, you went as an apprentice. Did you have to sign up ahead of time? How did you apply for -- she wouldn't take everybody --
Yetter: No -- no. She just took one at a time and my old aunt knew her and that's how I got in there. Just because my old aunt had known her. And you had to work six months for nothing and we worked from eight o'clock in the morning until six at night.
Wagner: And what did you sew? Did you sew things that she had contracted for?
Yetter: Well, she sewed for outside people and she done most of the cutting out herself. But, of course, after you were there a few months, she would let you work along with her. And I would work along with her when she would be fitting the dresses. But she taught you every step of the way but you worked six full months without anything and then at the end of six months, I think the first week she gave me $1.50 or something like that. And I stayed with her a few months and when I left she was giving me $3.50 a week and I was the highest-priced girl she ever had. Of course, later on somebody went in and worked for her. I think during the war she needed help and she had to pay people big money then.
Wagner: Did you have ice for your drinks in the summer? The ice wagon came through --
Yetter: We didn't drink cold drinks all summer like they do today. The root beer I suppose -- when we had the root beer, we didn't make that very often. I suppose they tried to put that on ice and have it cold for you but that would be the only time. But they wouldn't have ice cubes to give you to put in your glass like they do today.
Wagner: Did they put things down in the water to get cold?
Yetter: Well, in the country people had wells that they would hang things down the well to keep them cold.
Wagner: But you just had the ice box?
Yetter: We just had an ice box.
Wagner: You wouldn't chip any of the ice off to put in your lemonade?
Yetter: Well, maybe they did -- I've forgotten about that. I still call them ice boxes and my grandchildren make fun of me.
Wagner: Now you said you used Black Flag to control the --
Yetter: Yes, I can remember using Black Flag.
Wagner: You didn't keep a compost pile. Did the men keep a compost pile? For their gardens?
Yetter: No.
Wagner: No. Manure. Did they use manure?
Yetter: Well, they didn't have horses. Nobody had horses -- except duPonts.
Wagner: The rest of you had to walk?
Yetter: Yes. Everybody walked.
Wagner: Rhubarb. Do you remember growing any rhubarb?
Yetter: Well, we didn't have it, but some people did.
Wagner: What home remedies did you have for things like diarrhea? What did you do if you had vomiting and diarrhea? You didn't call the doctor for everything.
Yetter: No. No. They always had some home remedies. I don't know what they did for something like that. We didn't get sick very much. I know if you god cold, you had your feet put in a bucket of hot mustard water. And granny would get down there and she would bathe you up to your knees in hot mustard water. And then you got something hot to drink and put to bed. But that's what you got for a cold. Maybe they would give you hot lemonade. And of course, some people would have hot whiskey but my grandmother didn't believe much in whiskey. But she would give you hot lemonade or else hot tea. And put you to bed. Wrap you up and keep you warm.
Wagner: What about tooth aches?
Yetter: Well, we always had tooth ache wax or something that you could put in a tooth. That's about the only thing I know. I never had a toothache when I was a child but my sister used to cry with toothache. Well, my mother sent us to the dentist as soon as we were able to go into Wilmington to the dentist. She did send us to the dentist all the time, and I think if my tooth ever jumped, I was at the dentist's in a few hours. I didn't wait to get the toothache. I never was afraid of the dentist. I was more afraid of getting my picture taken. I take a horrible picture and I freeze when I get a picture taken. So, I'd rather go to the dentist anytime than the photographer.
Wagner: Did your mother ever have time for ladies groups at church like Ladies Aid Society, WSCS?
Yetter: Well, my mother didn't have much time for it, but there was at the churches -- they always had groups.
Wagner: So, how did you keep cool in the summer? You told me last time about going swimming. What did you do in the house in the summer if you had a heat wave like we had last August? What did you do?
Yetter: My grandmother had a hot dinner at noon and I would take my plate and go out and sit on the porch on the floor because it was cooler on the porch. I can remember doing that. And -- well, we just went out and sat under a tree and fanned ourselves. You know, there was always plenty of trees around -- shade trees and you'd get out where there was any breeze. You'd just sit where there was a breeze or sit on the front porch in the shade. And she would tell you to get some game where you would be quiet instead of running around getting overheated.
Wagner: Because you just couldn't turn on the electric fan.
Yetter: No. We had no electric fans. You had screens in your windows to let the air in. And of course, they left the doors open night and day in the summer. They never closed the doors.
Wagner: You did have screen doors?
Yetter: Oh, yes, we had screen doors. But we didn't close our doors at night in the summer. Never worried about anybody breaking in or stealing anything. We didn't have anything for them to steal.
Wagner: Letter writing. Did you do much letter writing?
Yetter: No, I didn't. My sister would write, but I never had time to write. I was too busy playing. - Men's clothing; chamber pots; her husband as a young man; explosions at Hagley and their aftermathKeywords: chamber pots; clothes; Forty Acres, Wilmington, Delaware; Hagley Powder Yard; men's clothes; privy; shoes; shoes held together with wooden pegs; underwearTranscript: Wagner: Now last time I was here, you described to me ladies' underwear. What did the men wear?
Yetter: Well, in winter they had - well, I think they had one-piece underwear - pants and shirt altogether. Or they had two pieces like they do today, you know, but they wore long drawers. They wore long drawers and long sleeved shirts then. I don't know that the women wore long-sleeved shirts, but they had some sleeves in their shirts - I think part sleeves in their shirts. Short sleeves.
Wagner: And the men wore tie shoes or button shoes?
Yetter: The men wore tie shoes. Of course, my grandfather, he wore shoes working in the powder. His shoes were put together with pegs - wooden pegs - so that's the only thing I've ever seen him with - those shoes on. duPonts, I think supplied them.
Wagner: That's what I was going to ask. Did the Company give him those?
Yetter: I think the Company supplied those because they didn't want them to walk with nails in their shoes in the powder yard. And they wore the ones with pegs in them. I can remember them very well.
Wagner: Now, I got one question here. Potty chairs or chamber pots. Did you -
Yetter: We had chamber pots and there was a pot under every bed. So, if you had to get up in the night, that's what you used. And then they had to take a bucket up and empty those and a bucket of water with it to rinse them out and the mother had to go through every bedroom and do that every morning. And then take it out to the side of the hill or the toilets, I suppose, up in the backhouses they called them, or up in the privy.
Wagner: Where were your privies in relation to your house? Well, they were either up back of the house on the hill or up on the side of the hill. Where we lived there was a good space between us and the reservoir was up from us and there was quite a space in between and ours was on the side of the hill. But some of the houses were up - they had to go up steps and up to the back almost half way up the hill. Where they were. And if they went at night, they took a lantern because they didn't have a flashlight. They took a lantern. If they went at night. Hardly worth the effort. [Laughter].
Wagner: Well, I have a whole list of things here but I think that's all we're going to do today.
Yetter: Well, I just got to talking and it took you so long. Did you realize how late it was when you were here before? Not until I got home and my husband said, "Is supper ready yet?" And I said, "No." It was about six o'clock.
Yetter: You said you had to go home to cook supper and I went out in the kitchen and looked at the kitchen clock and said, "Oh, is that 5:30. Where did the afternoon go?" I just must have talked you to death.
Wagner: I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Well, I hope that you find something out of it - something constructive.
Wagner: Did you recognize any of the people in the book?
Yetter: A few of them - not too many. I knew everyone in the Cross family. I knew all those. And I had this book out yesterday. My daughter came up and then I couldn't find the picture. I wanted her to see a picture in here. Of course you wouldn't know it.
Wagner: The museum people will be getting in touch with you again. I think they want you to come out and ride around the property with them, so they will be getting in touch with you again.
Yetter: I wanted my daughter to look at this and see if she recognized who that was.
Wagner: I wouldn't know.
Yetter: And I got this picture out and I couldn't find it yesterday to show her.
Yetter: That was my husband. He was really a tall man. This might be he as a young man. Well, I was married on my 19th birthday and he was 23 or 24. So, in that time he was 20 years old and look how tall he was in that picture. And this would have been taken before. And he told me one time he lived in the Forty Acres and you've which fire company. Well, they had horse and wagons in those days. And all the men and the boys in the neighborhood jumped on and went to the fires. And this day there had been an explosion up the yard and he wasn't working that day and he jumped on and went with them. And he said, "If I had known what it was, I never would have gone." Because he said he was scared to death after he got up there. And when he saw, he wasn't used to powder mills going off like I was because I was raised there and he said then there was no way for him to get back until they came, and I bet it was the upper yards that blew up that time and I said if that doesn't look like him - his eyebrows, his mouth and his nose. He would have probably been around 16 or 17 at that time. And I think that's when the explosion probably was up at the upper yard and it blew up a lot of the houses.
Wagner: Were you there at your grandparents' place when they had any bad explosion? Do you recall any?
Yetter: Oh, well, I mean, the rolling mills went off every once in awhile. Someone would get killed. And they wouldn't let us go right away. But after a while we would wait until some of the men came over the hills, and the women would all be out and they had their aprons up and crying for fear it was their husbands, you know. And then when the men - somebody came over and tell them whose mill it was, and who they thought was in that mill then they would allow us to go up and the men which they told you in this book - then men would 'be around with buckets gathering up the pieces. And I remember one time when snow was on the ground and we would go around and you could see the pieces of flesh and blood and we would point to it for the men and they would come and pick it up and put in their bucket. Pieces of bones or something or if you would see a limb on a tree - something hanging up - you'd tell them and they would gather all these things up and take them away. But they always sent a crew out to clean up after an explosion. This would be up in the fields, you know, not down in the yards. But mostly it blew them across the crick because their roofs were sloped, you know, and mostly the things went the other side. But when they blew up in the air, some of it was bound to come down on our side. Where we were on this side of the Brandywine - on the south side of the Brandywine.
Wagner: And children wouldn't have nightmares or anything? You just accepted the fact?
Yetter: Yes. And then one day, we had a front porch and then there was kind of a walk out and then our fence. And then there was two steps down to the road. One morning I was ready to go to school and standing out there and the mill went off. And the night 'before I had been reading about the earthquake in California and I thought it was an earthquake and I jumped on to the ground and thought if the house is going down, I'm not going down with it. Because - and I wasn't very old at that time, and I jumped on to the ground. But what I was going to tell you - I'm going to ask you to shut the machine off. - Going into Wilmington; running a restaurant; irises from the Corwninshield gardenKeywords: Elizabeth "Bess" Beacom; family business; grocery store; irises; Kent County, Delaware; liquor store; restaurant's; small business; United States Navy; Wilmington, DelawareTranscript: Wagner: Bess would take you with her?
Yetter: Yes, she would take me with her or if she was going to Wilmington or if anything was going on, she would always take me with her. Because my sister was three and a-half years older than me and she didn't want me tagging along with her because she was beginning to go with the boys and girls. I didn't know why she didn't want me so then Bess, I think, would take me with her. And Mrs. Beacom was always had a couple car tickets if you had to go to Wilmington that she could always give me two car tickets to go to Wilmington, so that's why Mrs. Beacom was so kind. And then later years for ten or twelve years Bess came for Christmas dinner to my house. And I would always - she had a niece and nephews and I would always say to her, "Bess, do you want to come to dinner at my house unless you have someplace better to go." I always put it that way. And she would say, "I don't know anyplace any better to go." So I think for 10 or 12 years she was at my house for Christmas dinner. And then finally her nephew invited her the last two or three years that she was living - he invited her. To dinner at his house. has a nice home up around Greenville or someplace. He's a secretary or something for Belin du Pont or someone in the office. So, the last two or three years that she was alive he took her up there. And then every Sunday she came mostly for dinner on Sunday. And we would eat about five o'clock and I always had a cooked dinner. My sister would always put her place down and I'd say, "Well, maybe Bess won't be here." And she'd say, "Well, it's easier to take the plate off than it is to get up while we're eating and set it." And we would hear the latch on the door, and she'd say, "Here comes Bess." [Laughter]. So, Bess would sit down and eat dinner with us on Sunday.
Wagner: Now when your husband - had you already started your family when you all opened the restaurant?
Yetter: Yes. Florence was in college and Billy was in - well Billy must have been about 12.
Wagner: Then, you started the restaurant much later than when you had the store in town. Yes. Because we started - we were married in 1916 and started the grocery store in December that year. And then we came up here and we will be here 50 years this December, I think. Because I heard Billy say we are going to have a 50-year celebration. Down at the package store.
Wagner: Oh, I'll keep my eye open for that - see what specials you have.
Yetter: I don't know what it's going to be but he said some of the liquor people told him he better put on a 50th anniversary because the family has been in t:he business 50 years down there. So, I haven't heard anything more about it. Of course, I don't have to worry anything about the planning of that. [Laughter].
Wagner: Did you make your children help you in the restaurant?
Yetter: Well, Florence was in college and then she was a county agent in Kent County after that, so she wasn't in around to do much. And when Louie was 16, he got his driver's license and he had to run errands with the car but he wasn't old enough to work. You see they had to be 21 to work down there on account of handling liquor. So, then he was in the war for two of: years, he was away. He wasn't in much war, but he was away for two years in the Navy and then when he came back, he went right in to helping his father. Because he said he didn't want to see me back of the bar.
Wagner: And that suited you fine.
Yetter: So, he went back of the bar and I stayed out of back of the bar. [Laughter].
Wagner: But you've worked hard.
Yetter: During the war I done most of everything around there. I said I've done everything but clean toilets. And you put your foot down at that. I put my foot down and never cleaned toilets. I washed the wash basins out and cleaned them sometimes but I never cleaned a toilet. Would you like a macaroon?
Wagner: No, thank you. Well, maybe I will. Tell me about your iris. Well, I have some iris in bloom right now that came from Mrs. Crowninshield's gardens. They were tearing the gardens up and throwing them - the bulbs out - and some men gathered a half-a basket and brought them to me. And I've had some beautiful ones that look like orchids. All shades of blues and mixed colors and things, and right now I've just had about half-a-dozen bloom in my yard. And I see some buds out there so I'll have a little more later. But they are late this year.
Digitized material in this online archive may document imagery or language that reflects racist, ableist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive and harmful beliefs and actions in history. Hagley Library is engaged in ongoing efforts to address and responsibly present evidence of oppression and injustice in our collections. If you are concerned about the archival material presented here, or want to learn more about our ongoing work, please contact us at research@hagley.org.