Interview with Edgar Dill Peoples, 1988 April 2 [audio](part 2)
- Squirrel Run memories; singing at Christ ChurchKeywords: Christ Church; Squirrel RunTranscript: Peoples: She was very dainty. When she walked she never let her heel down first, she put her toe down first. She was a very dainty person, nice person too, very nice person.
Johnson: Did she wear high heels or just the way she walked?
Peoples: I really don't know. I can remember because, see when I worked in Bancroft's, in the office, she worked in the office too, and she didn't live very far from me. I used to walk home with her at times,I noticed she'd never let her heel down first. What's all this?
Woman: Well you can see that later.
Peoples: Is that a check?
Johnson: Oh, there it is, I found it.
Peoples: Oh, I had a lot of fun. Are you through with this?
Johnson: Yes, thank you very much. Oh, would you sign this,this is the release that will - or enable them to tell us...
Peoples: I don't go to jail will I?
Johnson: Oh no, this just, I have to give it to you upside down.
Woman: Well I know I'm not pregnant, but this flower is overpowering me. My first pregnancy, I waited four years for it, and I'll tell you it was a big event. I had just gotten a new fur coat...
Johnson: Thank you.
Peoples: That's pretty good for an old man.
Woman: Yes, it's okay - I thought you'd like to see how nice his name...Oh yes, he's always been a beautiful writer. But he doesn't trust himself any more, and I have to do the Christmas cards and things like that.
Peoples: Where could we ever hear that produced?
Johnson: Well, what they will do is have — they have a secretary transcribe it, and if you want, I can bring you a copy of her transcription after she finishes it. It takes her quite a long time, so it will be...
Peoples: Oh, I thought it would be for the public.
Johnson:...a week or several weeks. Well, we wouldn't have anything to play it on anyway. No, what I would bring you would be the written transcription, if you wanted to see it, but that takes quite a while until she can do all that work. It takes a terribly long time to do this.
Peoples: Well we had a lot of fun.
Johnson: I enjoyed talking to you. And then they keep the tapes themselves, on file, so this way they have the record of the person's voice, too, so they can play the tapes as well as read them. But of course it's more convenient to read them if you're...
Woman: Yes, I know my daughter has...
Peoples: As far as I know, I'm the last one living that was in Squirrel Run, as far as I know.
Johnson: There was one my I interviewed, he was there for just one year, he was so little that he thinks the Squirrel Run was the Brandywine. So he says, "Oh, I fell in the Brandywine when I was a year old," but it was really Squirrel Run he must have fallen in, but then his memories of that are almost nothing.
Woman: Now he told me he was born...
Peoples: That run comes across that road that leads up to Christ Church too, and on down through Squirrel Run.And it empties into the Brandywine in part of the powder mills.
Woman: Did you tell her how many years you sang at Christ Church?
Peoples: Twenty— seven years.
Woman: Twenty-eight years, yeah, he did. He was there when it was the du Pont church, and they each had their pew and I didn't know this. And I went out this summer and I...
Peoples: Never forget one day I had a line about that long in an anthem, all by myself. I really let it out. After the service, Henry du Pont went up to Mr. Swinnen, "Who sang that?” "So and so — that was Peoples." So I felt pretty proud that he noticed my voice. I thought, well gee, I must be alright.
Woman: I went in this, when I first went out there, and I just sat down on the pew, no one was in it. And pretty soon this lady came back and said, "I think you're in my pew." No one in it at all, but it was some - I've forgotten which one — Irenee, no, I think they were nice - oh Hallock, Mrs. Hallock du Pont.
Peoples: I can't believe it, my watch has stopped. Oh, I've got it on backwards.
Woman: But now you can go and sit anywhere.
Peoples: You've got me flustrated. It's only four o'clock. Oh, we had a lot of fun. Come again sometime.
Johnson: Oh, I really appreciate your helping. Thank you so much.
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