Interview with Elsie Irene Overbay

              Interview with Elsie Irene Overbay, by Ruth Hendricksen, Harford County Library, May 29, 1996.

 
HENDRICKSEN:
OVERBAY:
RH:
EO:
 
When did you come to Harford County? We came here on November 19, 1940.
What brought you here?
Well, my husband came up here with his brother to work on a dairy farm.
 
RH:	Oh, okay.	Where was the dairy farm?
EO:	Creek, Maryland and	Green -- his farm. RH:	Is that where you lived for a while?
EO:	Yes, we lived there from 1940 to 1945, and then he went in the Service.	He was in the Service until 1947, and then we came back to Maryland -- Harford County, in Bel Air, where we lived on Arthur Hoffecker's Farm from then until 1950, and then we moved up to Brian's Apple Orchard, my present apple orchard.
RH:	Oh, right.
EO:	And we stayed there until 1952, I guess, and then we moved to Pennsylvania for about two-and-a-half
years, in Delta.	I lived on Marcia	's farm, and
then we came from there here in 1955	April 9, 1955	and we've been here ever since.
RH:	Did you live in one of the houses on Mount Pleasant?
EO:	Oh, yes.	We lived in the Livingston House. RH:	Oh, it's such a pleasant place to live.
 

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EO:		It is.	It was a nice place.	My husband was the overseer of the Jamaican			Jamaicans would come in and pick apples.		Of course, he works on the farm		, why, then, he was                  one of the bosses.	He was not all the one, but he was		the Jamaicans would come in and pick
apples for.	We stayed there	to
Pennsylvania for two-and-a-half years, and then he
wanted more public work so we went to Hicksville.
 
He used to go out for, I guess, in	, and now it's
 
used to be Williams?
 
RH:	Sherwin Williams?
EO:	I couldn't even think	a division there.	So he
worked there for quite a while, and then he went to
, and, of course, I worked with
in 1950, and	until it blew up in 1960.
RH:	Were you still working there when it blew up?
 
EO:	Oh,
RH:	You
EO:	Oh,
 
yes.	February 9, 1960.	Yes, I was still there. remember the day?
yes.
 
RH:	What was it like?
EO:	If you ever seen a picture of an atomic bomb -­
that's what that looked like.

 
RH:	Oh,
EO:	Oh,
 
wow.
I'm telling you.	And it shook the whole place.
 

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It shook my husband out of bed, almost.	We were living here.	It shook the pictures off of the walls.	Of course, he knew what it was, and he got in to come up there, but they wouldn't let him up the hill.	So we walked it.
RH:	Oh, wow.	Did anybody get hurt?	I don't remember.
I wasn't here at that time.
EO:		My boss was killed.	He was the only one.	There were a couple of them that were scratched and bruised, thank God.	They told him two of the girls were trapped in #3 Building, and he opened the door, and when he did, of course, it just blew him down into the #4.	It took everything over the hill.
There was nothing left of it.
RH:	Were there any houses around there at the time?
EO: Oh, yes. Houses were on the side of the road.  They were all shook up. Some of them were damaged pretty bad.  They weren't burned or anything, but they were
-- they shook the pictures and broke the windows and the doors, and you could see things flying up on the wires.
RH:	Oh, my God.
EO:		Plus, our coats and pocketbooks were all hanging up on wires -- telephone wires and the electric wires.
ever got down there.	[laughs]
 
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RH:	I don't know either.	I'll bet.
EO:		We had quite a time.	We came in, and when we came down here, we didn't have hot water or anything.	We moved in here and Mr. Foster owned the place.	We had an outside back house point, where the
out in our backyard.
RH:	[laughs]
EO:	Our grandson gets a kick out of this every time we say it.	He can't believe it.
RH:	Right.	They don't.
EO:	I guess we had that up until April.		I can't remember what year Alan bought it.	But then we bought this and Alan in 1973 -- February 12, 1973.
RH:		Well, you sure do remember dates.	I don't. [laughs]
EO:	Oh, I can remember pretty well.	Some of them I
can't.
RH:	Well, you've seen a lot of changes in Havre de Grace, haven't you?
EO:	Oh, yes.	When we came here, of course, the
racetrack was a big thing here, and	, of course.	It was booming like all get-out.
RH:	Yes.
EO:		And Bainbridge	the rock 'n' roll on Friday and Saturday nights.
 


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RH:	That's what I've heard.
EO:		Oh, yes.	That's where all the sailors -- and, of course, Edgewood.		Yes, there's been a lot.	And, of course, where we used to have farms -- that's all houses now.	Nothing but.
RH:	What was life like on the farm?	What did they grow?
I know Mount Pleasant was apples and fruits.
EO:	Well, up where we lived, we had a dairy farm.	Well, most of it.	My husband farmed.	He had corn and hay and stuff like that for the farm		to feed the cattle and everything.	And that's what we raised.
Of course, we had our own garden and everything. That's what they raised at the farm.	for the cows and all.	It was hard work.
RH:	Yes, I'm sure it was.
EO:	Some days we'd get to bed maybe one o'clock in the morning, and up at three-thirty or four to go and milk cows again.
RH:	Why do you think it all stopped around?	Just because of the houses?
EO:	I don't know.
RH:	People are interested in houses.
EO:	I don't know.	A lot of my guess is about money­ hungry, and they wanted to sell out and quit working at a dairy farm and go work and make big money maybe
 
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at a store maybe in the guess, a lot of them did.
 
, which, I
 
RH:
EO:
 
Oh, it is true.	It is had work, too. Oh, it's hard work.	It's not easy.
 
[laughs]
 
RH:		Well, what was life like in Havre de Grace?	What did you do for fun?
EO:	[laughs]
RH:	Was the Bayou Hotel still a hotel when you were here?
EO:	Let's see.
RH:	I don't remember when that stopped being a hotel.
EO:	I don't, either.	I know the Homestretch was down here, next to the lighthouse.	That
used to be a rock 'n' roll little	But that
was never down	We used to go to dances, and you'd hear		lived next door
Of course, they're both dead and gone now.	But we all went to the dances on Saturday nights.	That's about the limit of what you could do!
RH:		Well, I heard from other people I've talked to, too,
said that there were a lot more stores, and that the shopping was a lot in Havre de Grace then.
EO:	Yes.	We had them.	We had the two five-and-tens at that one time.	What was the other one?	That
 
..
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National Five and Ten, and then RH:	Oh, the one that's still there.
EO:	We used to have the other five-and-ten, too.
Whichever one			I can't keep up with them.	And then, of course, we had Murphy, the restaurant that used to be on the corner, which was a good place to go and eat.	They had a lot of stores and things.	A lot of it's changed.	Of course, there's a lot we don't have nothing in anymore.
RH:		Well, that's true.	Although havre de Grace has changed a lot since we came here in the 1960s, and Havre de Grace was nothing.
EO:	Yes.
RH:	I mean, it really is turning around again.
EO:	Yes.	Of course, when Bonebridge closed, and
almost closing down and everything -- it's made a lot of difference.
RH:	Yes, it has, I'm sure. EO:	We had a lot of changes. RH:	Yes.
EO:	Of course, Harford Memorial, and all of them.	I
guess Brevens -- if I'm not mistaken, when we first came here, I don't think it was opened as a nursing home.	It seems to me that it was more like a hotel.
 






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RH:	Yes, I think so.
EO:	Something like that, when we came here.	Of course,      I wasn't in Havre de Grace that much.	You know, you run in and out	in the country.		That's usually when you think you're going to have time, when you're working on the farm.	[laughs]
 
RH:
EO:
 
That's true.	[laughs] With two kids to raise and other work to be done.
 
, and all the
 
RH:	There was something in your thing about -- did you ever work at the hospital?
EO:	Oh, yes.
RH:	What did you do there?
EO:	I worked twelve-and-a-half years there. RH:	What did you do?
EO:	I worked in delivery and nursery.
RH:	Oh, did you?
EO:	Oh, yes.	I liked it. RH:	Did you?
EO:	Yes.	I'm filling in as a retired -- I mean, I'm in good health, and I    could have gone on, but
 
But they have let some of them now	maybe
thoroughly enjoyed working there.
RH:	Did you?
 
I wish
But I
 
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EO:
RH:
 
Yes. That was there?
 
, I guess.	When did you start
 
EO:	In September of 1974.
RH:	So it was already fairly big then -- the were?
EO:	Yes, we had many rooms, and they were open.	Not
when I first started, but as we went on in the
 
years,
opened up the fifth
 
in 1986, when I retired.	They that was later on.	I
 
don't think it was open up enough
they've done a lot of changes about that now.
RH:	Yes.
EO:	I can't find my way around.
 
, but
 
RH:	Oh, I know.	I know. that's all.
 
I know certain things, and
 
EO:	Oh, yes.
 
I go in there and -- it wasn't like this
 


RH:
EO:
 
when I was here. Yes, yes.
I had lots of good friends up there.	and
the doctors -- they were all good to me. I mean, I worked by myself. Of course, I had my little place back there that I lived. [laughs]
 
RH:	Right.	[laughs]
EO:	I enjoyed it.	You see a lot and you hear a lot.
 


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[laughs]
RH:	Some of it you don't want to see and hear.
EO:	No.	And you keep your mouth shut, unless you want to start a lot of trouble.
RH:		I guess.	What's the biggest change you think you've seen happen in your lifetime?
EO:	Oh.
RH:	I know that's stuff, because you have to think about it.	[laughs]
EO:	It really is.	It happened so fast.	Gradually.	You
wake up one morning and you think "Gee, yesterday, I think."
RH:	Yes.
EO:	One thing -- the hospital, of course, is changed.
And, of course, all things in Havre de Grace around, changed back again to what it used to be.	I guess with all the new schools	got all
them -- you never know which way you're going. [laughs]	You get on one road, you know where you're at.
RH:	Right.
EO:	So I think a lot of that has a lot of changes that I've seen happen.
RH:	Really?
EO:	And the people.	There's a lot of people -- they've
 
 






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changed, too.	Some stay the same, but the rest changes.
RH:		Do you remember any famous people coming through Havre de Grace?
EO:		No.	I know a lot of them come through, but no -- I didn't get to see them.	I know President Clinton and all them were down here.	I didn't go down, but I stood out on the porch and listened.	[laughs]
RH:	[laughs]
EO:	It was a nasty day that way.
RH:	Yes, it was.	I remember.	I remember it was raining.
EO:	Yes, it was a mess.	I sat out on the porch, and
 
then I'd go out back, and the window.
 
just right out
 
RH:		I've heard other stories when the racetrack were here that there were a lot of people in and out -­ famous people.
EO:	I imagine they saw a lot of people, and a lot of
them I didn't know anything about.
RH:		I've heard a lot of different stories, but I don't know the dates of a lot of the stuff.	Somebody told me -- and this might have been before you moved here
there used to be a circus that stayed in town in the wintertime.
 
   






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EO:
RH:
 
It must have been --
I don't remember when.	It was probably before you. A lot of people are telling me these stores, but they can't remember the dates.
 
EO:	They could have been one year when we came here, too.	As I said, we were back in the country a lot, and we didn't get out in town a whole lot.	I can remember one in Bel Air, but it just came through it didn't stay.	But, now, of course			I don't remember now.	It could have been.	I'm not saying it wasn't.
RH:	Have you been back up to Mount Pleasant?
EO:	Oh, yes.
RH:	Does it look any different?
EO:	Oh, yes.	It's changed.	The old packing house burned down.	They have another one, and they don't have the			and things, like they did in
Of course, I worked in the packing house, and we used to pack apples to ship out and everything.	They don't do that anymore.
RH:	No.
EO:	They pack them in there, and they just throw them out of -- or, I guess they do, because you never

RH:	No, they don't.	You don't.	Where do they bring the
 
 






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workers in from?	All over?
EO:		Well, most of them were the ones that lived in the housing	, and then, anybody else, I guess, had come in and wanted jobs.	The Macons were the ones that picked apples, but we were the ones that worked in the packing house.	I don't think any of them worked in there.
RH:	How many houses were up there then?	More than there are now?
EO:		That's the thing.	I don't think they built any new ones.		about eight or ten on this side, and then fourteen across the road, on the right-hand side, when you go through the orchard, up on the right-hand side.		There's about four or five houses down in there.
RH:	Oh, is that right? EO:	Yes.	There were two
RH:	Are the brothers on the	?
EO:	didn't own it.	Mr. Brine
when he died then he sold it -- or she sold it because he died before she did -- and she sold it to Webbers.	And I guess they're still the ones that run it.
 
RH:
EO:
 
Yes. He died
 

the old gentleman.
 
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RH:
EO:
 

Yes.
That's what they told me, anyhow.	I'm still	'
and we go and get apples and things like that. and want to just take a look.	It's still
there.	It looks nice.
 

RH:	There were other farms all around there, weren't there, at the time?
EO:	Oh, yes.	Well, they're still there.	I was never
in, but I've been by.	I've never been in there.	Of course, I		with the
and things that they have.	But I've
never gone	[laughs] RH:	[laughs]
EO:		Well, we lived.	I think we saved on a lot of it.	I think we built-up the		, or whatever they called it, down here.	It's so nice to
and all that.	It's really nice.
RH:	Yes, it is nice.
EO:	The decoy place and all that. RH:	Did you know Mr. Mitchell?
EO:		I knew him.	Not personally, but I knew who he was. But I knew a lot of his friends and a lot of them -- Shirley		, I guess -- I don't know if it's his sister.	They're relatives anyhow, somehow.	She takes care of this little lady -- well, she's a
 






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now, but she was a Mitchell.	But I think she was his sister or cousin or something.
RH:	That is such a big family.
EO:	I know.	We knew part of them, but
Most of them are not a bunch of people.	Well, we have good neighborhoods in here.	I can't complain about any of my neighbors because they are good neighbors.		Most of them
have moved out except for a couple of them.
I've never had problems.

person in
RH:	Did your kids all go to school in Havre de Grace? EO:	Oh, yes.	Shirley and Richard went to
Maryland.	When we went on the dairy farm
up here in Harford Memorial.	They both went   to school here in Havre de Grace.	They would have graduated.	Richard -- he went into the Service, and he graduated in the Service.	Of course, he only had the rest of the one year to finish up.
RH:	What was it like around here during the war? EO:	It was rough.	It was rowdy.
RH:	Oh, that's
EO:	It was a rowdy place, with all the Service men and everybody --		and the Proving Ground, and all of them.	Of course, we went back to Virginia in
 
 






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1945, and I stayed there until I guess the end of
1945. My mother died, and then we came back up here in -- I guess it must have been in 1950 when we came back, and then our son was born up here. My husband got out of the Service, and, of course, diary farm,
here were come. [laughs]
RH:	[laughs]	What was	like?
EO:		We had a good time.		It was hard work, but you really enjoyed it.	I regret we ever really left the dairy farm, because he would have		It was much nicer for him.	That's what he wanted.		I went along with him				I wanted.	[laughs]
RH:	I've heard a lot of stories about people that worked in	when it first started.	I've heard some really interesting stories about the old man -- I don't know what the man's name was that founded the company.
EO:	You know, I don't know.	My husband worked eleven- and-a-half years.	Mr.			Something like that.	They were born into it.	I worked there four­ and-a-half days.
RH:	[laughs]	I guess you didn't like it!
 
EO:	Well, I was working the
at Sonny -- my	Sonny
 
plant, and got mad
I
 
said, "I'm going to work at	"	He said,
 
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"You don't think you'll come back?"	I said, "No." RH:	[laughs]
 
EO:
 
Four-and-a-half days, I think he'd take me back.
 
I didn't
 
RH:
EO:
RH:
EO:


RH:
EO:
RH:
EO:
RH:
EO:


RH:
EO:
 
You must have been a good worker.	[laughs] Well, we started at fifty cents an hour.
Oh, my God.
That's what we were making -- fifty cents an hour. That's all.
Oh, my God.
Can you believe it? No, no.
Kids now wouldn't even settle for No.
If he	for fifty cents an hour, they would have a fit.
What kind of stuff did you have to do?
Well, all kinds of	machine, we made firewood from the cherrybombs.		All kinds of
, all kinds of	the Fourth of July.	We used to make just about everything that they'd send up on the Fourth of July
 
RH:		Were you ever nervous?	Did you ever think there would be an accident?
EO:	Well, there had been several while I worked there.
 
 






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RH:	Were there?
EO:	Yes.	There was one killed -- he was burned.	He was working in the counter, and he was a little
or something in there, and it blew up one day.
:	Oh, my God.
i,o:	Oh, yes.
 
RH:	I can't think
,: didn't have
 
I pon't know.	Maybe [laughs]
 
EO:	Maybe.

RH:		I	don't think I	really thought about it.	I	guess you just go in and you go to work, and hope and pray for the good Lord, that he lets you come out safe.
EO:	I	mean, I	guess you can get hurt anywhere.
RH:	You can.	I worked in Harford	I worked there for eleven years before it burned up.
EO:	[laughs]	My husband used to laugh and say, "Well, everywhere you go, everything burns up."
RH:	[laughs]	You had a reputation for EO:	They were laughing at me.
RH:		Well, if you could change anything, would you have done anything different?
EO:	Well,	, I guess when you sit
down and think about it, I doubt seriously I would have.
RH:	Some things we just don't have any
 
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EO:
RH:
EO:
 

Sometimes you don't have no choice. No.	No.
But I don't know.	I've begun to think a lot of times	yes, I would change this and that.	But then you get thinking about it and you think, "No." You sit down and think about it and you really had it lucky.		It wasn't maybe all you wanted.
 
RH:	But not
EO:		No.	I've had a good life.	I really can't complain about it.	I've had a good life.	We've had a
, and our family is not perfect.	We have our problems, as does the next one.
RH:	Sure.
EO:	But	all that stuff, right?	I mean, we have our little disagreements, but
with children and grandchildren and great­ grandchildren.
RH:	Is that right?
EO:		I can't complain about it.	There's a lot of them I would wish to change and do different, but --
RH:	Sure.
 
EO:
 
That's your do?
 
, and what are you going to
 
RH:	Right.	Well, if you could see something happen --
what would you like to see happen different in Havre
 
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EO:
 

de Grace, or where would you like to see Havre de Grace be like --  the direction it's going?	Do you think that's going to hurt the people with you?
I think it's going to make a big difference. Whether it's going to hurt them or not, time can only tell.	If people don't get greedy -- if they do, then yes, we're going to have problems.	But if
they stay and act like human beings, than try and be greedy and treat everybody fair, I think things will work out good.	But if they don't, then I think we're in for a nasty time.
 
RH:	Yes.
EO:		Because we are going to have a lot of tourists in here, and more of them now, since we're getting all these bed and breakfast places, and all this other stuff they've already got here to show off that we didn't have before.	Yes, I think so.
RH:	I often heard when we first moved here people said, "In order to make it or to be accepted in Havre de Grace, you had to be born in Havre de Grace."	If you were an outsider, the people didn't want to be bothered with you.	Did you ever have that feeling, that if you weren't a native, they weren't real sure.
EO:	Some, maybe, but not all.	Yes, some -- if they were
 
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outsiders -- they said that all those people from Virginia were coming to Maryland, and all the Marylanders were going to Virginia, and all that, and we should stay where we belong, and all this stuff.	I think maybe someone may have changed their minds.	I don't know.
RH:	Yes, maybe it's been long enough.
EO:	Yes.	It really hasn't bothered me that much.
RH:	Well, of course, you didn't live in the city that long, did you?
EO:	No.
RH:	Was there a lot of competition -- I don't think
that's the right word -- between Aberdeen and Havre de Grace?	Did they kind of keep separate?
 
EO:
 
I	think at one time they must have,		I mean, as I    said, I'm not even into politics.	I can't keep it going.
 
RH:	[laughs]
EO:		I've heard a lot of stories that went on between Havre de Grace and Aberdeen.		Whether they're all true or not, I don't know.	But I do know at one time they had quite a few problems with it, but I think it all -- part of t em got ironed out.	I can't say all of t/:J,em.			, anyway.
RH:	Did you ever see any p oblems between the whites and
 
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blacks in the first year?
EO:		You still do.	Quite a few of it, at times.	I think it's mostly with the younger generation.	I don't think it's as much the older generation of the people, but it's these young ones that are coming out.	We do have a lot of prejudice, on both sides. Not only		it's on both.	Now, to me,
 
I can't equal.
RH:	Yes.
 
I mean, I feel that we're all
 
EO:	I don't believe in	If that's what they want -- who am I to say it's not right?
RH:		Right.	Right.	You make up your mind what you want for yourself.
EO:		Right.	If that's what they want, then But people	But, no.
RH:	I think people a lot of times -- at least when we first moved here -- people said, "Oh, well, there's so much crime in Havre de Grace."	I don't know if it was true, or not.
EO:	I don't know, either.	I know we had quite a few
things, but I think a lot of it we had everywhere.
RH:	Yes.	People didn't like the schools in Havre de Grace.
EO:	A lot of people in Havre de Grace -- we all have
 
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problems, I think, with the school.	They could change a lot everywhere.	We do need some different changes in our school.
RH:		Yes.	Do you think the kinds of people that are in Havre de Grace now are changihg?	Do you find them different?	It seemed like Havre de Grace were people that were settled and older, and looking for a steady life, and it seems that you see a lot more younger people.
EO:	Yes.
RH:	Different attitudes, maybe.
EO:	We do have a lot of younger ones. RH:	Yes.
EO:	I think that's what's wrong with our schools and everything, is so many of the young ones coming in. If they don't teach our children like they should teach it, they're there for the money.		I'm not saying all of them, but part of them.	I think -­ yes, they should change it.	And the same way the things are run in Havre de Grace.	I think that they changed a lot of their -- I think they've got too many that think they know everything, and don't know what they think they know.
RH:		Yes.	[laughs]	What do you think will happen to Havre de Grace if they close the hospital?
 
 






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EO:
RH:
EO:
RH:
EO:


RH:
EO:
RH:
EO:
 

I think it will be a disaster. Yes.
I hope and pray it will never happens. Oh, me, too.
But I really do think if they close the hospital, they might as well close Havre de Grace.
Yes.
Because I don't think we'll have anything left. Yes, because so many people work there.
I know.
 

RH:	But they don't think about that.	The doctors can move, but all the people that work there -­
EO:	Yes.	And they can't find jobs everywhere. RH:	No, no.
EO:		I know a lot of my friends are still up there that I've worked with, and those girls are totally upset about it, too, because they don't know what's going to happen.	They say no, if they build the new hospital, it won't.	But you know it's not true.
RH:	Right.
EO:		If they build that new hospital in Havre de Grace -­ Harford Memorial is going.	It might stay there for a while, but it will keep closing.
RH:	And think of all the houses and offices that are down there.
 
 







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EO:	I know.	And doctor offices.	[laughs] RH:	Yes.
EO:	I don't know.
RH:	It would really be a shame for the city to see that happen.
EO:	I hope it never happens.
RH:	Do you remember -- I don't remember where it was.   It was probably before your time, there was an old house that was the first hospital.	It was somewhere in	, and I don't remember when Harford Memorial was built.
EO:		I was trying to think of that.	I can't remember when it was built, either.	But I do know that at one time, it was an old house.
RH:	It was around there somewhere, but I don't know where it was, either.
EO:	, that was down there, somewhere
else.	That I can't remember too much.	I can remember hearing other ones talking about it.
RH:		I'm not nearly as good as you are with dates.	Do you remember the Doubledecker Bridge, that went across the river?	That might have been before you moved here.
EO:	I can remember them talking about it, but I vaguely
do remember it.	But I'm like you -- I can't
 
 






OVERBAY	26

remember the dates because I know they were still building the bridge		, and all that stuff was still being built.	But they didn't have it finished when we came up here.
RH:	Were the trains running here?	Was the train station still here?
EO:		The train station -- yes, that was here, only it was up on Angel Hill.
RH:	Oh, really?
EO:	Yes.	I can't remember where it is now, but it was up on Angel Hill.	Yes, it was here.
RH:	Route 95 wasn't done? EO:	95 -- no.
RH:	But Route 40?
EO:		Route 40.	That's the only one we had.	And number one, because I know we used to go to Virginia
we'd go in the morning.
RH:		It must have taken you forever to get there. [laughs]
EO:	Twelve to eighteen hours.
RH:	Oh, my God.
EO:	Now you can go in six or seven.	Eight at the most, and you stop a lot.
RH:	Yes.	A little bit different.	[laughs]
EO:	Oh, yes.
 






OVERBAY	27

RH:		Well, I've also heard about -- this might have been before your time -- you're too young for this! [laughs]	About all of these things -- the
and everything during prohibition and loots and the betting	that were around during the racetrack, that were around what is now Revolution Street now.
EO:		You know, I heard about it.	I don't think I've seen them.	Now, we weren't down here that much.	But I do know the racetrack and all that, and I heard them talking about	I never went there. [laughs]	But if you didn't go, you'd
 

RH:
 
very well. Right.
 
If you're not around
 
EO:	We moved in here, but --
RH:	I guess living on a farm makes a difference. EO:	It does.
RH:	Yes.
 
EO:	It really makes you
have time for anything else.
RH:	Yes.
 
busy.	You never
 
EO:	Not when you work anywhere from twelve to eighteen hours a day, you don't have much time left.
RH:	Would you like to see it come back	around
here?
EO:	Well, I wish they hadn't have sold as many offices
 
 






OVERBAY
28

that they have. We do need some left. And cut out part of the houses, so I really don't think we need all these houses piling up on top of each other.
But I don't think it will ever happen.
RH:	No, I don't either.
EO:	I think more than life are all the farms someday. RH:	It's a shame.
EO:	It is.
RH:	It really is a shame.
EO:		Because we really need them.	What are they going to live off of?
RH:		People think that food comes from grocery stores. [laughs]
EO:		No, they don't.	You've got to have a farmer somewhere, to raise that.
RH:		Yes.	But it's such a hard life, I can't imagine anybody would want to do that.
EO:		Well, people don't want to work them anymore.	I think that's one of the reason why they sold them. That, and the money along with it.	I mean, it's hard work.
RH:		Do you	think that the owners of those big farms made a good living, then?	Did they make money, or were they not making a lot, either?	The people that owned the farms.
 






OVERBAY	29
 
EO:
 
They made more than the ones that were working on it.	[ laughs]
 
RH:	Yes.
EO:	I'm sure they made a good living off of it.	And
 
they made a big profit off of most of it. the ones we lived on did, anyway.
 
I know
 
RH:	Now, there were all the canning places, and the big
canning houses in Aberdeen.	It appeared to me that
 
EO:
 
the owners of the places were Yes.	He's buried down on that way.
 
Road
 
RH:	Were there any others around, up in through here?
EO:	At Hickory they had one.	I don't know who owned it,
 








RH:


EO:


RH:
EO:
 
but I worked there a week or two, in and out, canning tomatoes.	they had another
after.	Now they've got a packing house and things, but they don't run it like they used to.	We used to work
Do those things go all over?	Do they stick mostly
on the East Coast when they	?
I don't know where they all	'  to tell you the truth.
Did they have	?
Yes, Mitchell was in that.	the packing house, so it ends out on the canning house
 
 
OVERBAY	30
 




RH:


EO:
RH:
EO:
RH:
 

the owner.	Now, one thing I went to -­ I don't know how well
Well, I guess the people who ran it	who owned the canning houses --  made money.
Oh, yes.	Oh, you know they did. Yes.
It's
Yes.	I heard that on the river, down from here but I guess --  I'm trying to think if there is
 


EO:
 
anything that would They did have down here
 
in Aberdeen
-- they got an
 
ice house down here, and I don't know if it's still opened.	I know that you can go in there, and I think they made kind of like a museum or something out of it.	I haven't been down in there for years, either.
RH:	That big building down there -- was that a canning house?
 
EO:		Yes, it was.	I can remember somebody worked there.	They made
 
, or and
 
canned tomatoes and everything.	I never worked in it.	I think that was running when they used to run the packing house or something, when we moved in.
 
But it was still open for something. house.
 
It's now
 






OVERBAY	31
 
RH:
EO:
 
I don't know what it is.
There are books in there or something now. know, either.
 
I don't
 
RH:	Yes.	I just think -- there might still be a EO:	There probably is.
RH:	I don't remember, either. EO:	I go by there.
RH:	You don't pay any attention?
EO:	No. You used to have the brewery down there -- Blue Ribbon Brewery used to be down there.
RH:	Where was that?
EO:	It was right up from the	, on the
right-hand side.	I can't think what their names are now, that ran it.		But they sold it.	Shirley's ex­ husband used to work there.
RH:		Now, I remember when we first came here -- my husband thinks I'm nuts -- I remember that there was a boat at the end of the street, down here on the water.	Like a show boat or something.
EO:		I vaguely remember that it was down there, down from the ice house that we used to have.		Yes, there used to be one there, and I'm like you.	I don't know what it was.
RH:	But I remember it being there. EO:	Yes.
 
OVERBAY	32
 
RH:
 
But I've also heard stories that in the summertime you can do some rides, and a big boat would come over and pick up people and take them over to there.
 
EO:		Yes, I've heard that, too.	I never was on it, but I've heard them say something about it.
RH:		Well, I guess that's the difference.	If you're working on a farm, you're not looking for it.
EO:	You're not after a boat ride. RH:	No, you're not.	You're not.
EO: And we didn't get out like that.  We went out, but you sure don't have time to go out and take a boat ride and come back.
RH:	No.
EO:	They did a lot of stuff there.	My husband and all them would have remembered better than me.	Because as you said, you go and you look, but you don't stop to think that maybe someday -- maybe you should remember all this.
RH:	Yes.	You're too busy just living your life. EO:	Living your life -- that's the thing.
RH: It's like walking down the street. You never even realize. If somebody asked you what color was the house across the street, you wouldn't know.
EO:	I wouldn't know.	[laughs]
RH:	But you see it every day.	That's true.	That's
 
OVERBAY	33

true.	Well, you know, you don't think about it. Other people I've interviewed have said, "Well, you just don't think about it."	But if you ever really sat down and thought about a lot of things that have happened in your lifetime, that is
Wars and going to space.
EO:	Oh, heavens.	believe that things like that that could happen, but it does.
RH:	Yes.
EO:		Just like Citizens Nursing Home.	Now, it wasn't there when we came here.	It used to be
That was along	house.	And now look at it.	Everything is torn down.	They've got Citizens Nursing Home up there now.
RH:	And the condos behind it. EO:	Yes.
RH:		I don't remember what was there before the condos went up.	I don't think there was anything there.
EO:		I don't think it was	blow that this week.
RH:	Yes.	Somebody asked me the other day what was on
the Promenade before it was the Promenade.	I said, "It was just dirty and nothing."
EO:	You couldn't even walk over it.
RH:	No.	It was rocks and dirt and bushes and everything.
 
OVERBAY	34
 

EO:


RH:
EO:
 

Yes.	The only thing it went down to is the lighthouse.
Yes.
And that's about as far as you could go.	You can go down to the park and around, because you sure couldn't go walking after there.
 
RH:	No!	And I remember the		that used to be there, close to the lighthouse, and working down there, where there were people there, because there were fights and everything.	[laughs]
EO:	Yes.	Where the home stretch used to be. RH:	Right.
EO:	Oh, it used to be a rough and rowdy place.
RH:	Yes.	Yes.	But things just happened, and you don't even know they happened until afterwards, I guess.
EO:	No.	You can sit on the porch or	that
went on down there.
RH:	[laughs]
EO:		Especially on the weekend, because that's a rowdy time.
RH:		Well, you're close enough to all of that.	Do you
get a lot of traffic with people coming around on weekends?
EO:	Oh, yes.
RH:	Do you?
 
OVERBAY	35
 

EO:





RH:
EO:


RH:
EO:


RH:
EO:


RH:
 

Yes.	Especially holidays.	Oh, heavens.	The Duck Museum and all that.	I'm telling you.		And the art museum		they all come through here.	And the Fourth of July.
Oh, so the fair is the Fourth of July?
Yes.	You can't find a parking place the Fourth of July, so don't even try.	[laughs]
Yes, I bet.
We can't move our car, because if you do, you won't have a place to park.
Do you find that the people are rude?
Some of them.	I think they're more rude now than they used to be.
Is that right?
 

EO:	Yes.	Well, people don't show respect for one another.	They don't show respect for nobody's property -- that's the truth.	It's just like going to the parades and things -- they drink.	Even soldiers and		They		and putting them off		on the ground.
RH:	They don't realize it's somebody's yard they're sitting in.
EO:	And they don't care.	I don't go for that stuff.
RH:	I wish they could have a Fourth of July place to remember.
 
..
•


OVERBAY	36
EO:	I don't know.	Every place we came down here.	In
1965, I know	because we never went, nor did we come down here.	But from 1965, on.	Yes.
RH:	Were they just	?
EO:	Some of them were, somewhat.	Some years they would be real nice, and other years they wouldn't be
walking up to school.
RH:	Did they always have the fireworks? EO:	Yes, they did.
 
RH:
EO:
 
Did the fireworks Part of them.
 
your company?
 
RH:	Did they?
EO:		When I first worked up there, some of them came from there.	But after the fireworks blew up, I never went to the fireworks anymore.
RH:	Is that right?
EO:	I
RH:	That's true.
EO:	I had enough of that that day. RH:	Yes.
EO:	I used to stay here, and	grandchildren. RH:	Well, you could tell them what they'll see,
probably.
EO:	I know.
RH:	It probably hasn't changed that much, has it?
 






OVERBAY	37
EO:		Not a whole lot, because they look like just like the ones that we used to make.	Oh, I'm sure they've got some different	now than	maybe, and then again, maybe they don't.
 
RH:


EO:
RH:
EO:
RH:
 
Did they ever set them off to see what they were like so you could see?
Sure.
Is that right?
Yes.
There must be all kinds of stuff laying around up there.	Do you think the	?
 
EO:	They might have been at one time.	I doubt if they

 



RH:
 
are now, because breezy here.
Are they still
 
are so


?	I thought
 
that a lot of fireworks company were like from the same family.
EO:	No.	They got one in the Eastern Shore.	Mr.	's
father worked that one, and then Sonny worked this one.	I think	they had that one.
died, I don't know what ever happened
to them.	They're still there, but
RH:	Wasn't there a farmer or something, too, that I'm

thinking of	?
EO:	Oh, yes.
 
•


OVERBAY	38

RH:	Is that the same company?
EO: No. No, it was owned by somebody else. They were forever blowing up or something happening to them. I think they still have one up in there somewhere.
RH:	I think they do, too.	I don't know.
EO:	I think it hadn't been too long ago they had a fire or something up there, in the some of the buildings, and they closed it down for a while.	But, no.	It
 
wasn't Havre de Grace there belonged to
RH:	Did they make a lot of money?
 
The one that was up
 
EO:		I imagine.	Either they made it off of that or somehow, because they had the money.
RH:	Did they live in Havre de Grace?
EO:	Yes.
RH:	Did they?
EO:		Yes, they used to live right there, across the railroad track in the big down -- they owned the first one.	There's a great big house on the right­ hand side.	It's still there.
RH:	Oh, right by the railroad track?
EO:	Yes, on the right-hand side.	As you go up, there's a driveway, and then it would be on the left-hand side when you're going up on the driveway.	It's that big house up there.	They lived there -- Sonny
 






OVERBAY	39

and his wife and two children.
RH:	Well, their house must have gotten shaken during the blaze.
EO:	Oh, everything		Of course, they didn't have as many houses up there.	Just on the right-hand side.	There might have been one or two houses on the opposite side.
RH:		Was there a local fire company then, that took care of it?
EO:	Oh, yes.
RH:	Was there?	They had a couple of them downtown?
EO:		Oh, they'd come from down here.	Of course, it wasn't as good as it is now, because that's back in 1960.	But they were there.	I have to give them credit for that.
RH:	How long did it take to put the fire out?
EO: Oh, I have no idea. I was so shook up, though, I think it was a couple days before I even realized who was who and what was what. [laughs]
RH:	[laughs]
EO:	Because that -- you'd never believe -- to see something like that.
RH:	Wow.	I've never even seen any pictures of that.	I
wonder whether there are any pictures around of the fire or anything, because I haven't seen anything.
 
..



OVERBAY	40
EO:	I have the paper here somewhere.	If I can find it,
I'm going to cut it up and I'll give it to you, and let you have it.
RH:	Oh, great.
 
EO:
 
I meant to hut it up. in one of my --
 
I started upstairs somewhere,
 
RH:	One of the boxes?	[laughs]
EO:	Yes.	I have to go through them all and find it.
RH:	Yes.	I don't think I've ever seen any pictures of it.
EO:		Yes.	Oh, it was amazing.	I will hunt it up and give it to you.
RH:		Oh, that's great if the library can keep stuff like that.
 
EO:
 
I will, because Shirley	not too long ago, and I said to her, "Good grief, the thing was getting yellow and everything."
 
RH:	Oh, wow.	Well, you see, this is the kind of stuff that people tend to forget.	People won't even know
there was a fireworks	there.
EO:	No, because it's been so long ago, and that's all. have forgotten it, and a lot of workers are
not even living anymore.
RH:	Was it mostly women that worked there? EO:	No, we had plenty of men and women.
 

..



OVERBAY	41

RH:	Both.
EO:		Yes.	Young and old.	You went and you just hired whoever came in, for fifty cents an hour.
RH:	[laughs]	Well, what could you buy for fifty cents an hour?
EO:	Well, at that time, you could buy a whole lot. RH:	Do you remember some things cost?
EO:	Well, when we first came up here, my husband was making thirty-five dollars a month on a dairy farm.
RH:	Wow.
EO:	Believe it or not.	Can you believe it? RH:	Thirty-five a month?
EO:   Yes. We	free. RH: How much was a quart of milk? EO:   Well, we never bought milk.
RH:	[laughs]	Oh, that's true.
EO:		I don't know how much it was at that time.	But I  know you could get sodas for five cents.	You could get ice cream cones for five cents.	Get penny candy

RH:	For a penny?	[laughs]
EO:	For a penny.		All that stuff -- it was all different.	We used to go buy our groceries for a whole month, and we'd still have money left.
RH:	Wow.
 
 

-·


OVERBAY	42
EO:	Out of thirty-five dollars.

RH:	Where did you	buy groceries?	There weren't any
	chain grocery	stores.	
EO:		We mostly did our	at -- it used to be Boyd's Grocery Store, on Abie Road, right up from where we lived, and we always went up there, or we'd go to
Bel Air once in a while and trade with them.	That mostly was up there, too -- the grocery store because that's where everybody went.

[end of side one]


RH:	How about some of those stores?	They're probably still there, aren't they?
EO:		Some, but there's a lot	The five and ten that used to be there -- it isn't there
anymore -- like you see on Main Street.
RH:	I think that's Woolworth's.
EO:	Woolworths.	I think you're right.
 
RH:
EO:
 
I think it was.
 


side.	we used to go there a lot.
 
RH:	Did you go to the movies at Bel Air?
EO:		Once in a while.	We used to go there and watch for twenty-five cents or thirty-five cents.	[laughs]
RH:	[laughs]
 
 






OVERBAY	43
 
EO:
RH:
 
We used to go to the Did you?
 
EO:		Yes.	We used to go over there, and we'd get a whole carload and go.	Of course, we were all young and we just			We'd take turns, and they'd meet us over there for twenty-five cents.	Movie
for twenty-five cents.
 
RH:
 
Right.
 
[laughs]	Were people going	?
 
EO:





RH:
 
There used to be a		up there.	And it used to be a		and you would get all covered in dust.	It would dirty your glasses like you couldn't believe.
Oh, wow.
 
EO:
 
But it is
 


plate factory
 
I guess the they're all gone.
 
RH:	Yes.
EO:	Everything is different -- it's changed.
RH:	Yes, sure.	Some of it for the better, some of it for --
EO:	Some for the worse.
RH:	Yes.	But that's the way life goes. EO:	That's the way life goes.
RH:	Well, I'm sure glad you spent the time with me. EO:	Well, you know,	memories.
RH:	Well, good.	I'm glad you came and I'm glad you
 
..•


OVERBAY	44
remembered.
End of Interview