Interview with Annie Sharp

              Interview with Annie Sharp, Harford County Library Living Treasure Oral History, by Michael Dante, February 20, 1981.

AS:		I don't know if you got "The Republican" this week or not.	"The Record" I mean.	I remember this and this, and this.	I walked that many times.	This is when they had the double-decker, and we went over one side and came back on the other.
MD:	Now, how long ago was that? AS:	Way back in 1925, '26.
MD:	And you could actually walk?
AS:	Oh, yes.	We girls used to go over in the spring.
There was a lady over in Perryville that always sold geraniums and there was about four of we girls that, when it was a nice Saturday, we'd walk the bridge.
They had part of it where you could walk and it wouldn't be dangerous.	We used to take a basket and go over there and get geraniums and walk back.	Oh, that was grand.	Yes.
MD:	Did you walk on the top or the bottom of it?
AS:	No, we walked on the bottom.	See this? MD:	Yes.
AS:	That's where we walked.
MD:	Oh, I see.	Did it have very much traffic?
AS: Well, yes. We had the races at that time, you know, and you didn't dare walk the bridge when those races were on.
MD:	Why is that?
 
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AS:		The cars.	Why, they'd be strung from Union Avenue clean out to the race track.	They'd start about 6:00 or 6:30 and they wouldn't let up until 8:00 or 8:30.	If they had a big race, why, you better look out.
MD:	Had you ever gone to a race at the race track?
AS:		I went once.	I didn't remember, because I was a little girl.	But not father, he just loved them.
He was a coal dealer, R. w. Greely, and my uncle and
aunt raised me.	There's their pictures.	Mr. and Mrs. Seneca.	My mother died when I was two and a half, and my grandmother kept me until I was going to school.		There was a young girl that lived up on Otsego Street and she was going to school and she was killed by the train.	They were afraid because I was just starting school, they were afraid I'd get run over.	So my aunt and uncle took me.	My father would take me down Sunday afternoon and I'd stay there until Friday.	Grandmother would go to church to the sewing circle they had making aprons, sun bonnets and all that, and at 5:00 when she went home, I went home with her and stayed with my father until Sunday.		Then he'd take me back to Mr. and Mrs. Seneca's, who was my great aunt and uncle.	He was superintendent of the Sunday School and I'd go to Sunday School with him.	I just had a wonderful life and a wonderful understanding of things.	I


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knew Mr. Steve Williams the --	Oh, what is he? Oh, he took care of wills and one thing or another. He was a personal friend of my uncle.	Uncle Steven used to take Judge Bambidger and Lawyer Williams and
two preachers on his yacht every August on a fishing trip.	I just can tell you I was invited over to Port Deposit last Monday to talk to the first graders and I had the time of my life.	I told them about the ice gorges and how people skated.	Mr. and Mrs. Holly, they were an elderly couple, and my father used to skate from Havre de Grace on up to Port and back again.	He had a great big, heavy sled.	How he pulled it, I don't know, but he'd take me skating and bring me back.	They were the good old days.	You weren't scared to death like you are now.
MD:	What was it like with those ice gorges?
AS:		Oh, my soul.		My uncle canned tomatoes and he was down on --	Oh, what is that street now where the old railroad cut used to be?	And the freight cars used to come from the freight station down by•Union
 
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break up and it would come down.	It really was a lesson to a person.		The ice gorge that used to have up in Port Deposit, people used to have to move from their first floor.	They used to have to take their pianos on the second floor.	It was terrible, Whenever that gorge came he'd let people know to come down to the office and watch it come down from
Port Deposit.	It just moved like this, you know, and then it would break up.	That was something to see.
MD:	Would it come in on the streets in Havre de Grace?
AS:	It wouldn't come in on the streets, but along the shore.	Usually when it broke up, there was enough current that it would move it down, but it would go so slow you couldn't see it.	It would be days before that would get clear.
MD:	Did it happen very often?
AS:		Every winter.	Every winter the Port Deposit people expected they'd have to move their living room.	If they had any extra rooms downstairs, they'd move all their furniture upstairs because it would just be flooded.
MD:	That's something.
AS:		That was something to see, that ice gorge.	It was something to see the people skate from Havre de Grace on to Port and back again.	An elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Holly, oh, they were really elderly and


 
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they used to skate.	They were considered the society skaters of Havre de Grace.	I knew them.		I wasn't very old, but I remember them and I remember the family.			The grandsons are still living.	It's wonderful.		It's just wonderful to have been a child in the 1900s and have the opportunity of experiencing the things that I've gone through.	I saw them for years and years on Union Avenue, where that's all road now, that used to be where the freight train came in and went down to the water's edge to load canned tomatoes and come up.		They'd have to have a man down on Washington Street, a flagman to hold the traffic.	I remember when during the --		Well, was it during the races?	No, it was in 19			When was that?	In 1919.		Anyway, I know  I was in high school or in seventh grade, something like that, and we'd all go into bed.			You used to have men come and light the lights.		They'd bring their ladders and light the lights at night.	The old bridge and then we had foot bridges.		One foot bridge here and one foot bridge here and here was the big bridge.	One night we heard a terrible crash and a car was coming up Union Avenue and it said to turn and they turned and went down off of the bridge and turned up side.	Oh, that was awful.		I remember that.	They kept me away from the window.			One of the neighbors had offered for them to bring the
 
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bodies up, but, oh, they couldn't.	They had an  awful time to get in that railroad cut.	But that was terrible.	It said to turn, but it was turn up the next corner and they turned.	Oh, that was terrible.	That was terrible.	I'll tell you another thing that I remember is when it came springtime
after winter, the latter part of March, they had a fishing shore down at Stony Point where the Proving Ground is now, and they had sheds.	My father worked down there in the spring before he went in the coal business.	He used to work for Captain Billy Moore. Oh, that was a sight to see these seines and put them out.	The people would go down to see it, when they'd bring that seine in and see all these fish and glisten.	That's something you never forget.
The same way with up here at Port.	Spencer's had the same thing and in springtime when they'd cut in, what they call cut in, they'd catch the herring.
They didn't sell them.	You could have all the herring you wanted.	You could go up there and people used to come from Baltimore and go up there and they used to serve fish dinners on the floats. That was something, those baked fish like that.
We'd have friends come up and Mr. Charlie Silver,
who was the president of the bank and friends of mine ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper, he used to take us kids up there on Saturday.	They
 




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wouldn't do anything with the perch and we could have all those, and we could bring those perch home.	That was a lot of fun.	I'll be eighty-three
in November, and I tell you, God's been awfully good to me because he's let me see every side of life.
Everybody has been so wonderful to me, and for why? I haven't done anything.	I haven't done anything, but I love humanity.	I just love humanity.
MD:	Where did you first start school at?
AS:		I went to school right here in Havre de Grace.		Miss Lottie Carol was my first teacher.	I'll never forget it.		Man, I was the dumbest thing in arithmetic you ever did see.	Well, she didn't make it plain.	Several of the parents complained.	She couldn't make it plain with an addition sign and a minus sign, and when I would add, I'd subtract.			I tell you, Miss Laura Taminy--and I know that you people have her name up in Bel Air--she was one of the most wonderful teachers I think I ever had.
When you went in her room you knew when you went in.	Now, she'd give you time to talk before school opened, but when that bell rang you'd better keep your hands still and your tongues still or you'd been writing "talking" one hundred times.	Oh, she preached patronism	[this is what she says; I believe she means patriotism].	They don't do that
now in schools.	They don't teach patronism like she
 




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did.	Every May at decoration time usually the roses and peonies were out and she would come dressed in white.		I can see her turning her white skirt up and
putting an apron on and making bouquets.		We'd take wagons of flowers to her and she would spend that morning in making bouquets for the soldiers.	We'd march from the elementary school up to that cemetery and marched, and we marched back, too.	And we better not talk while we were up there.		That was very, very sacred.	She had different boys to place these.	It was beautiful, something you never forget.		They had flags on the graves and they put these bouquets.	I never will forget it.		Even in high school we did it.	Miss Sally Galby, she was another wonderful high school teacher.	I know one before.		Professor Davis.	He was our principal.
Miss Sally says, "Now, you're not to drop out of line.	You're to go up there and march back."	And, oh, it was so hot.	We'd march back.	She says, "You're not to get out and get any ice cream or anything like that."	So Professor Davis was up  there and we were walking back and the perspiration just rolling down.	So we asked him and he says, "All of you go in and get what you want."	So when we went back she heard it and she called us down.
Well, we said we got permission from Professor Davis.	Well, she couldn't say anything then.
 




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Really, my school life, I never went to college because I didn't graduate from high school because I had trouble with my eyes.	I had to go to Baltimore
two and three times a week,	But I made it up. Professor Davis and Mrs. Davis, to this day, he said, "Annie Sharp, I'm so proud of you,"	I'm not praising myself.	I'm just telling you what he  said,	He said, "I am so proud of you.	The work that you've done," and now look at him, he's just lying there in bed.	She's not well either.			But when we went to school, why, we had the highest esteem for teachers, but now look at them.		It's awful.		It's just awful.	I thought maybe you'd like to see this.
MD:	Thank-you.	Oh, boy.	Let's see.	It says you got some kind of award for outstanding senior citizen?
AS:	Yes.
MD:	What is that about?
AS:	That's for helping others all my life.	When I was in high school, I used to have a little basket.	My aunt was very, very, very good to me that way.
She'd go down and see people at the hospital, and I
would go down.	Reverend and Mrs. Stuart, our minister--she's still living; he's passed on--but she had tin lizzies, we called them--Ford car--and she used to take we girls in the Junior League down every week to visit young people.	Then I got to
 




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doing it and I had a little basket.	I don't know what became of it.	I think somebody took it.	But I had a little basket and it had a top on it, and
Lawson Gilbert's father, he had a store on the corner of Franklin Street and Main Street downtown. I used to go down after school and I'd get cigarettes and I'd get candy and I'd get chewing gum and take my basket down and visit the children and the people.	There was two that I visited that I never, never will forget.	This young girl, she was a little girl.	I think at that time she was only twelve years old and she had lost her mother.		She had two brothers and I think two sisters.		Three brothers and two sisters.	She was the mother of the family and she was taken sick and she was down there.	Her father didn't get into see her.		Oh, she was awful sick, so I'd go down and see her.		Every time I went down I'd take her something.		Miss Sullivan was the superintendent of the hospital of the hospital then and she used to call me "Annie" and she said, "Oh, Annie, you're so good."		Well, I said, "Miss Sullivan, I can't now because the weather I know isn't permissible, but in May her father isn't going to take her home.	She doesn't have anybody to come and take her out.		When she  gets able and it gets nice weather could I take her out and walk up to Bandeber's Corner?		Not the first
 
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day, but gradually?"	She said, "Yes,   you can." And, oh, poor child.	She was so weak I could only take her from the hospital steps to the corner and
walk her back.	Oh, it was the saddest case.	I took care of her and then I went in and our minister's wife, Mrs. Stuart--and I'll never forget this as long as I live.		There was the most beautiful baby lying in that bed I ever saw him my life.	Not in her room, but in the children's, and I picked her up and I was rocking her.	The nurse came in.		She didn't tell me, but she told Mrs. Stuart.	She says, "You get Annie to put that baby back in that bed quick as she can.	She's got one terrible disease and when she goes home you tell her and you tell her aunt that she gets in a tub of hot water with disinfectant."	This dear little soul, oh, I loved that child.	I'd take fruit down and I'd take cigarettes down to the men and I went all over in the old --	Well, in this hospital too, but this was in the old Baker Home.	The operating room was in the bay window part.		I can give you chalk and spades on that.
MD:	What was the hospital like?	Tell me about that. AS:	It was Captain Baker and Mrs. Matty Assumption
Baker's home, and it was a gorgeous home.	Their bay window up on the third floor was the operating
room.	They had one great big room on the south side
 




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that they had about six beds in.	They were on that side and this side, and you could walk between.
Then on the second floor they had private rooms.	A
WCTU room and then another semi-private with two beds.	Then you went back and the back stairway went down this way to the kitchen, but back here they had about six beds in this room, and they had six beds up on the third floor in that room.	But this in here where the bay was, that was the operating room.
MD:	Now, did they have nurses and doctors?
AS:		Oh, yes.	They had Amy Bevin, she was one.	And Elizabeth Evans.	Oh, a Y s. Erwin, Dr. Erwin's mother-in-law.	Oh, Elizabeth Evans and Amy Bevin. Oh, who was the other one?	Oh, there was a lot of them.	It was just like a family and Miss Sullivan was so wonderful.		On the first floor they had a big room and a big library table and that used to be the doctor's and the nurses' room to talk over things.
They built on in back.	You went in the front and they had some rooms in the back, but they had a back stairway.	Oh, my land, you were scared to death because it was winding.		The nurses used to use it, but I'll tell you, it was a winding stairway.	That bay window --	Well, it's not there now, of course, but right off of Union Avenue, that bay window, that's where they used to operate.	Whenever we'd see that lighted up, why, you knew somebody was
 




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having an operation.	I went to there and that's where I started this kind of work and I loved it.
MD:	Isn't that something.	Well, now, I'd also wanted to
ask you about the Red Onion and Green Onion.
AS:		Oh, dear me.	Well, that's precious to me but I certainly don't like the name of it because everything goes on there and why the police don't stop what's going on there, I don't know.	It's heartbreaking to me because if my grandmother knew what was going on there it would break her heart. The same way with that gentleman there.	His brother, Uncle Robert Seneca, lived in what was called the Red Onion and he used to belong to the
Down in --	Oh, what do you call it?	One of the Statesmen from Maryland.	He was mayor at one time.	Uncle Steven was mayor of Havre de Grace at one time.	He ran the second time and Mr. Piersee won, but the first time Uncle Steven was mayor.
They have all these pictures of the mayors down in the council room.	Uncle Steven was a wonderful person.	And they had shoe store and it was called the Rockets Shoe Store and I never knew it until this year, and I can remember that store on the corner of Otsego and Union Avenue.	As you came from up the Avenue and coming up Otsego Street, my father had the White Chapel.	Before he had the coal business, when he married mother, he had a candy and
 



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cigar store where Dolly May's place is and it was called the White Chapel.	One 4th of July they had a parade and papa went to Baltimore.	I don't know how many little parasols--it was real parasols,
too--that he didn't have.	He went down to the Baltimore Bargain House and bought them and they had a big parade.	That was in about 1900, 1901.	The White Chapel, they used to have benches on the outside and the men would go down there and sit there like crows and visit.	Oh, my father was a   good man.	And so was my uncle.	He was mayor of the town and they used to get barrels of sugar and flour and in the big house where Dr. Walbrick lived, that's where we lived.	When the Depression came and the property was going down, why, my husband and I, Dr. Sharp, he was the dentist here, well-known.	I was married in '22; had a beautiful wedding.	In fact, last Sunday was my wedding anniversary and we'd have been married fifty-two years.	There's just so much in my life that I feel that God has really blessed me in every way, shape and form.
MD:	Well, now, it said that you were born at the Green Onion House?
AS:	Yes.
MD:	Now, how did it get its name, Green Onion?
AS:	I'll never tell you, but I'm not proud of it.	I don't know why the police don't stop them from
 




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running a house like that.	If my grandmother could know that, it would grieve her heart to death because she was a good Christian.	She taught me my
prayers.	She taught me the hymns.	She taught me everything.	Everything she did was good, and that place is anything but good and they ought to shut it up.
MD:	Well, let's see.	I thought that you wanted to talk
about what --
[end of side 1, tape l]
AS:		Oh, yes, and across the street, on Otsego Street on the corner of Otsego and Stoke Street, Margaret Hurtenrather and her aunt and her mother--her mother's name was Hurtenrather and her aunt was Miss Mary Ward.	She never married.	But she had a little store that they used to keep bread.	Mr. Bakedote used to come around at 4:00 with his bake wagon and she used to get rolls and cakes and things like that.	Then the double houses that's there now, she owned.		Well, it's not a double house now.	It's just a house, but that house is old and she owned that.	Then Viargaret Watts, she became heir to it.
Next to them used to be Mr. Leithiser, Richard Leithiser's home, and then Howlett's home and then
Oh, what was the other?	Stone's home.	They were there.	They had to move those, all but Miss Mary's home.		But the others they had to move when
 




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they put the railroad up there.	I can remember.
The Leithiser home is still up here on Otsego Street.	It's up in the block where Atkerson's
grocery store used to be.	That's been a grocery store ever since I can remember.		Uncle Robert Seneca's home, that's called the Red Onion.	I don't know why it was ever called that.		Oh, it was a gorgeous home.	Aunt Cal, she was an invalid.		She had arthritis so terribly bad.	Uncle Robert, oh, he was a grand man.		Miss Clara Cochoran, Dr. Cochoran who died, his daughter and she lived with them for years and years until they passed on.	Then she lived with V s. Street and she lived to be quite an old lady.	From his home down to the corner, Otsego Street, the last three houses on this side between where he lived and Russell Reason and the Brook's property, that's all new.	But Russell Reason's property, he was the one that had a feed store on the corner.		He had bins and the feed he'd have in different bins.		Then the blacksmith's shop.		Oh, that was something.	When they'd bring the horses to be shod you could see the fire where they melted for the horse shoes, and oh, you knew that.			Russell Reason's home, that's old; that's old.		Grandmother Greenley's home is old, too.	Mrs. Kefley, now Marie Spencer and her husband, owned their home, but the Kefley's, her grandfather used to have a bake shop
 




 
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where
 
17
Oh, who was it that had the plumbing
 
place there?	I can remember him.	He was a dear old
man, had real white hair.		He was a baker and he always wore a white gauze shirt and white pants and a white apron and a hat.	He'd bake cookies.	Oh, the cakes he used to make diamond shaped, and he baked pies.	Oh, that was something.	Oh, and they had me over to Port Deposit last week talking to the first-graders.	I had a ball.	They wanted to know about the ice gorge.	I told them about having this bakery and all.
MD:	What about the iron rail fences around Havre de Grace?
AS:		Oh, the old school--not these schools now, but the
old Havre de Grace that had the steps.	Oh, we  didn't dare go up them.	That was for the professor and vice principal and the teachers.	We had to go all the way around to the back or else they had a basement entrance.	You could go down that way and up the steps, but you dare not go up the front steps unless you were walking with a teacher and she'd invite you.	You couldn't go up there.		If you did you'd get punished.		That school, oh my, the basement.	It was all white and we used to have running water in there.	Then you'd come down the side steps like this and here was a big room where you could play and then you came out and this door
 




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went to the furnace room and then around to the boy's entrance because you had the girl's entrance and boy's entrance.	Then we came all around and we'd have come up the basement steps.	You couldn't go up the front door, but you had to go around the side and either go in the basement and around or go all around to the side and come up in the hall.	We daresn't come in until the bell rang.
MD:		Let's see.	I wanted to ask about you spending weekends at your uncle's farm, Mr. J. T. Seneca.
AS:	S, J.
MD:	Oh, S. J.	And that's him right there. MD:	Oh.	What was his farm --
AS:	It was down at Stony Point.	He sold that farm to
the Proving Ground.	When the Proving Ground started he sold that.	But he had a wonderful farm and he used to have a bungalow down there and it had
bunks.	He had four bunks and he had a stove, cook stove, and he'd go down there.	He gunned out here on the Susquehanna, but at fishing time he'd go down there and he'd take his guests he always took on his yacht.	Oh, he was just wonderful.	He had that farm, Stony Point Farm, and he had a man and wife who was named Rathor, and they farmed that until the Proving Ground and then he sold that for the Proving Ground.		But he owned property.		Oh, Uncle Steven owned where he lived that big place of Dr.
 




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Walbert's, and he owned the Bornaman Apartments, and he owned a double house where Mrs. Sodder lived next to the Methodist Church, and he owned property on
Green Street, on Stoke Street.	Oh, he was a large property owner.
MD:	What about Robert Seneca?
AS:	Well, Uncle Robert, he owned his house on the corner of Otsego and --	Oh, what is that street?	I know it just as well as I know you.	Adams.	Miss Clara Cochoran, Dr. Cochoran's daughter, after he died, why, she went and lived with Uncle Robert and Aunt Cal and she stayed there until they had to give up their home.	Then she lived with Mrs. Street until she died.
MD:	Was Mr. Seneca in the legislature?
AS:		Yes, both of them.	No, Uncle Robert was, but Uncle Steven wasn't.	But he ran for mayor at one time and was defeated by Mr. Clarence Pusey.
MD:		Oh, I see.	Well, now, how did you meet your husband?
AS:	Well, I tell you, I heard we were having a new dentist and he was coming to church.	I didn't get introduced to him there, but there was an alley that we had a back gate, and I could go up to Mr. Good's store to do my marketing.	I didn't pay any attention.	I'd go up there Saturday and I'd see this gentleman coming down.	Then I went to church
 



 

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and I --
 

20
Oh, we had something going on and he'd
 
been coming to church.	I said to one of the choir members. , "We ought to see about him buying some tickets."	So I had the tickets and he was coming in
from the station and I said, "I think you're the new dentist in Havre de Grace,	Some of us have recognized you in church and we're glad to see you, and I'd like you to buy a ticket from me."	So I sold him a ticket and then that's the way it began. [laughs]	Oh, he was a good man.
MD:	Was he from Havre de Grace?
AS:		No, he was from Canada.	And I never met his people until after we were married.	I thank God every night of my life what a wonderful family I got into.	He had a cousin that married a preacher and she was a singer.	She had the most wonderful voice.		He had a cousin that was a doctor, a specialist on cancer.		He's still living, but he's not in good health.	But Mother and Dad Sharp came down to visit us.	Mother Sharp was down two or three times, but she passed on.	Dad Sharp was down just a few years before Clifford passed on, and he died at our house down on Green Street.	He was at
the dinner table and he was a great tease.	He was a lot of fun.	He was teasing some of the girls, the teachers I had, because we had a rooming house.
During the war on Green Street where we lived I
 




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worked with Mrs. Beckman and the USO.	I was a member of that and we used to serve dinners over there.	My son was in the Navy and he came in and
some of these boys I had met coming in and they were so homesick.	When I went home I told my husband and I said, "Clifford, I think it would be nice if on the weekends when the rooms are empty that we don't invite the boys over."	Well, he said, "Sure."	So I went over one Saturday and it was getting near Christmas and we had them for Thanksgiving, too.
But this particular time I went over and this one boy, he was so homesick.	Well, I said, "I tell you what you do.	I want you boys that come here every Saturday, there's three or four of you, I want you to come over to the house.	I want you to come on Saturdays and stay until when you have to go back Sunday night."		We had that.	Oh, that was the most wonderful thing.	They enjoyed it and we enjoyed it.	When they'd come in Saturday they'd say, "Mom, we're here."	And I said, "Well, you just go into
the refrigerator and help yourself.	I've got things in there for you."	Then it came around Christmas time and one boy, he said, "Oh, I am so homesick.
This is the first Christmas I can't be with my mother.	She always has a Christmas hymn she  sings."	Well, I said, "I tell you what you do.	You call your mother and you talk to her."	So that
 




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helped him.	That's the best work I ever did to.	I hear from them yet.
MD:	Do you?
AS:		I hear from them yet.		I've got some pictures I'm going to show you.		One of the boys has been up and his wife, to come up and see Bainbridge since they've turned it over to all this business, and they came to see me.	Oh, I was so glad to see   them.	I tell you, it was a wonderful work and I just loved them.	We had them until Bainbridge closed and I still hear from some of them.	I'm going to show you some pictures.	I'm a little bit stiff.
MD:	Oh, I'm sorry.
AS:	Oh, that's alright because I have to move.
MD:	Am I in your way?
AS:	No, indeed.	I've got them right here.
MD: Let's see.
AS:	Oh, and I want you to see this.	Maybe you know about it.	I don't.
MD:	Okay.	Let me close this up.	Oh, it's your
proclamation.	Oh, yes.
AS:	And you see all my citations?
MD:	Yes, I do.
AS:		That's the first one, and that's the next one, and two over here.	Then my state one.	I'm so proud of them.	I don't feel like I deserve them.	Indeed, I
 
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don't.	Now, there's a picture of my uncle fishing down south.
MD:		I'd also wanted to ask you what it was like for your
husband and you.	Was he the first dentist that Havre de Grace ever had?
AS:		Oh, no.	Dr. Sugar was here.	Dr. Pennington was here.	Dr. Willis was here and Dr. Coler.		He and Coler went to the dental college about the same time, and Fred Coler is a very good friend.	We had the cafeteria down in Florida for thirteen years, fourteen years and we got caught in --	Oh, my, that was terrible.	I don't know how we ever survived, indeed I don't, because we lost every penny we had.	We didn't get a penny and we had it   in three banks.	He wouldn't put all the money in one basket; he put it in three.	And we lost everything.	Indeed, that was terrible.
MD:	Was this the Depression?
AS:	Yes.	Oh, I never want to go through --	I seen something I'd never want anybody to see.		We had a home on 15th Avenue in St. Petersburg and we had the cafeteria business.	Our chauffeur, he came up.	He had taken Clifford down early to business and he came in about 9:30 and he said, "Mrs. Sharp, Dr.
Sharp wanted me to come up and tell you that the banks are closed."	I said, "What?"	So I got ready and went down.	He had been up and got his change.




 




SHARP	24
No, he'd made a deposit.	He took his deposit up and. he went back down and opened up for breakfast.	He went down about 5:00, 5:30 and then went up at 9:00 to get his change.		He was going back and one of our friends met him and said, "Where are you going?"	He said, "Well, I'm going up to the bank.	I've got to  get some change."	He said, "No, the banks closed." He says, "Oh, it can't be because I've just been up there."		He says, "Dr. Sharp, it's closed," and that poor man had taken a check up and he didn't have a penny.	Well, he said, "It can't be.	I just went up there and made a deposit."		So he went back up and sure enough, it was closed,		That made it terrible.
Oh, that was awful.	I never want to see it.	The line was clean around the square and just pulling their hair out.	Oh, it was terrible.	So then, of course, we couldn't do anything.	We didn't have money enough to keep going so we thought the best thing was to get home.	So we turned our Pierce Arrow in and we got money enough so that we could get a cheaper car and come home.	Indeed, that was terrible and we didn't know which way to turn.	But we felt so thankful that we had our business up in New Jersey, because in wintertime we had it in St. Petersburg and then we had a cafeteria up in New Jersey.	We used to do grand up there.		We'd have only about six weeks business, but we did as much up
 
SHARP	25
there that summer as we did down in Florida all winter.		We did good.	So when we came home he said, "Well, it won't be too bad because we'll have the cafeteria up in New Jersey."	So he got things straightened out and he went up.		The man that he always dealt with, he said, "Oh, Dr. Sharp, don't worry.	You can have the place, but we can't help you in painting."	Clifford said, "Well, that's alright.			We'll get the painting down," and he came home and he said, "You come back next week and I'll have your papers all fixed up."	In a week's time the man that he always dealt with--oh, he was a grand man--he'd had a heart attack and died and when Clifford went back there was another man had come with twelve-thousand dollars of rent and he got it and we lost that.	So it pretty well done him up.
So then he went into diner business and he did pretty good in that.	Then where he had the diner, they moved the race track.	Well, then they didn't do any work.	Well, then he came back and one of my friends said, "Why don't you go down to the Proving Ground.	I'm sure you could get in down there."	he says, "I don't know."		Well, she says, "You go down," and he went down and he passed everything until it came to his physical and they said he had Parkinson's Disease and that's where he found out. He kept saying to me when we'd go out to take a
 
SHARP	26
little walk in the evening, he said, "I'm walking off.	I'm walking off."		I said, "No, you're not. No, you're not."	He said, "Yes, I am."	So from then he was sick.		Then our roomers left.		They bowered and I didn't want to take any new ones on because the class of people that were coming through the door I didn't want to take in with a sick husband.	Then the children said, "Mother, just sell your home.		Just sell it and what you get out of it come up and build on."	So that was a bedroom there and this part we built on.	Then I didn't get it finished the way I should.	I had it pretty hard, but I've got grandchildren.		My son and daughter and my son-in-law and daughter-in-law, well, I don't know the difference.	And I've got so much to be thankful for.	Oh, I couldn't get myself together and the children said to me, "Mother, you ought to get out."		I said, "You just leave me alone until I get myself settled."	So I waited until Holy Week in '67.	He died in January over to Perry Point.	I never missed a day that I put him in there because I took care of him home until I couldn't take care of him because he had this stroke, fell on the floor.
We entered him in.	I was very glad that he could enter Perry Point.	I visited him.		I went over every day.	I never missed a day.	I didn't get home until 9:00.		When he left me, that made a big hole
 
SHARP	27
in my life and they said, "Mother, you're not getting out."	I said, "You just leave me alone." They said, "We'll get you an apartment in town," and
I said, "Listen, that's silly.	Here I sold the home and the money I got from it I put in this to add on.	Don't be silly.	You just leave me alone."	So when Holy Week came I went down to the Grace Reform Church and from there I went down to the nursing home and they were talking about they ought to have someone to visit.	And I said, "Well, I'd love to have some work to do."	So I started in there and
I've been going there ever since.	So that's the way

things go.
MD:	Let's see.	Did you raise your family in Harford
County?
AS:	Indeed, I did.	Indeed, I did.	My son graduated from the Havre de Grace High School and Jane did, too.		Then he was called to war and then came back and had TB.	His father was living then.	He had TB.	He was married.	When he came home from the
war, I never will forget.	It was in September and I didn't tell him I was going to take school
teachers.	I had to put my name in that I could take
two.	So one of them came on a Saturday.	Her mother and father came down and they were very much pleased with our place and her to get in.	I served meals and all.	So I said, "Now, I don't like the room I'm
 

 



SHARP	28
going to show you, but I'll have a better room.	I'm going to have another teacher.	I can make a better place to you if they take the room because I've got a large double bed.	I can put .another bed in,  too."	Anyway, she took the back room until Jackie came.	So the day that they were to come to move in, Steve came home to lunch and he said, "Mother, I
hear you're taking school teachers."	I said, "I called up and said that if they had any I'd be willing to have two of them room and board."	He said, "Well, you didn't say anything."	I said, "I don't believe in counting my chickens before they're hatched."	So when he came in at supper time, Jackie, his present wife, came through the door, and, oh, she was a perfect lady.	Her sisters both were teachers in colleges.	Helen was a teacher in western Maryland.	In fact, she was principal.		And Nell was down in Virginia down in Petersburg.
Anyway, they came and that night, why, of course, they were for dinner, and the boys, they had a big time.	Well, they were taking them out to a ball
 




SHARP	29
[end of tape 1, side 2]
AS:		They all were together.	Jack, he was going with Betty, but he couldn't keep going because he had another girl down in Virginia and he'd given her a ring.	Oh, he had a time.	So when February came
around Betty came down and she said, "Annie, have you seen Jackie?" and I said, "No, I haven't been up there to see her."		Well, she says, "You just go up and see her.	I just knew she'd beat me for all I've been working to get that diamond ring."	I went up and Steve had given her a diamond ring.	He couldn't have gotten into a finer family.	Both of her sisters, well, Helen was way up.	She was in Western Maryland College.	She was the principal up there.
And both of them died with cancer.	But, oh, she is grand.	So I've got a lot to be thankful for; I've got an awful lot to be thankful for.
MD:	Let's see.	What has changed about Havre de Grace, do you think?
AS:	[laughs]	Well, when I was coming up, the park, oh, we used to have such wonderful things at the park. Our Sunday School used to have their picnics down there and to entertain the children they had excursion boats and they used to have excursions but it got too expensive so they would entertain the children at the park.	They'd have people that had boats come in the wharf down at the park.	They'd






 




SHARP	30
take them for a boat ride and they'd take them for a car ride. To go in a car would be wonderful. You'd put five or six in the car and they'd take them
around the town.		And then in the evening we all took our baskets of lunch, like we used to go down to Tallchester.	We had a lovely time.	We used to be able to go down to the park and enjoy it and now it is awful.	It's terrible.	We don't have any place that we can go.	People used to come from Baltimore up here and go to the park, but you can't do that now.
MD:	Do you remember the first car that you saw in Havre de Grace?
AS:		Yes sir.	I never will forget that.	Mr. Richard
Leithiser had a Ford car.	I'm telling you, that thing was that high.	He used to have to put   curtains up in it.	He took my aunt and I for a ride and he went down to Stony Point.	And believe me, it was Stony Point.		Talk about a rocky road to  Dublin.	Well, I never will forget it.	He used to always take her out to the cemetery.	It was a Ford and brass on it.		Mr. and Mrs. Silver, they had a Overman car.	Elizabeth and Bartel and I were such good friends.		She used to come in and get me, and Mr. Silver, if it looked like rain, put these curtains up, hook them on, you know, and then have to unhook them.	Oh, dear.






 

 



SHARP	31
MD:	What about the telephone?	Did you always have a telephone?
AS:	Yes, we always had telephone, but we had one that had a box and you had to wind it to get it.	You didn't have it like this to raise it up.	Then we used to have one in the bedroom that was that big, hung on the wall, and then you wound it.	But not like it is now.	But on Uncle Steven's desk, he had a box phone and you could wind it.	But not like it is now.
MD:	Were there pretty much the same streets, or have they made a lot more?
AS:	Oh, they made a lot more.	It used to be so muddy.
I can remember when they put the Macton Road on Otsego Street, that great big old steam engine and all these stones.	They'd have piles of stones every so, and tar.	They'd put tar and then stone, and then tar and then stone.	That thing was noisy.
They used to have two steam engines.	One at this
end of Otsego and one at this end, and when they did Union Avenue, too.	I remember when, oh, the three bridges.	I remember when the car went down that cut.	Oh, that was awful.	Came in and it said to turn and that car went down.	One man was killed outright and they had a terrible time getting his body because they had to take the ambulance down underneath because that was a railroad, see.	That
 



SHARP	32
was terrible,
MD:		Did people like to go swi=ing and fishing in the river?
AS:		Oh, my land.		Why, we used to go down at the port, my husband used to go down there and get fish.		He'd go fishing.		He loved it.	You could go and not be molested by anybody.	When he come home from Florida he had a little rest period before we opened up the cafeteria in New Jersey, and he used to take the children when they were small, down the park.	They used to have a playground down there.	They had the balls, and, oh, I don't know what all, and they used to love it down there.	We used to have boat races, too.	They used to have a yacht club down there by the park.	They used to have a clubhouse.	Of course, they have the boats, now, but this was different.		They had a regular clubhouse.	And the Bayou Hotel.		Oh, me, there.	We used to have a ball down there.		Go down there and have dances and have clean fun and everybody having a good time.	Now  what do we have?	We don't have anything in town.
And so much dope around.
MD:	Did you ever go into Bel Air while you were growing up?
AS:		Oh, yes, but if you went to Bel Air, that was a trip.	We used to have --	Oh, when they used to have the Harford County Fair, Murry Lauder had a
 
 




SHARP	33
great big truck.	I know my aunt and two or three of the ladies used to go.	They used to sit up front, but we kids used to get in the back in this truck.
Oh, that was fun, and then go to Bel Air.	Oh, dear, goodness, that was a lot of fun.
MD:	Did you ever take the railroad as a passenger?
AS:		When I was married and one Christmas--I'll never forget this--the Crawford girls and Lawson Gilbert's sister, I think there was about six of us girls went down on the 9:00 train.	They used to have a fast train and then the accommodation train after that.
Well, we got on the train and the conductors got so they knew us.	So we'd get off in Baltimore and we'd disband and come up on the evening train.	I'll  never forget it when the Christmas before I was married--! was being married in February--Lawson Gilbert's sister and I went down and when we came home we had our arms full.	My husband wasn't then my husband, but he met us with the car.	We had the biggest time.	Well, yes, we used to go on the train.	And the girls, one of their husbands met them and took a crowd and Clifford took Grace and I and someone else.	I forget.		But I know we had a car full.	Oh, we used to have a ball.
MD:	Do you remember much about Prohibition?
AS:		Oh, indeed I do.	Oh, before Prohibition, oh, it was awful.	At my grandmother's home we used to have a
 
 



SHARP	34
fence	They don't now, but they had a fence because
papa had a stable and he rented the stable out to someone that had a horse and cart.	That was awful.
They used to have a saloon down		Well, Sirick's Saloon, Whalen's Saloon, Cobb's Saloon on		Oh, what is that street?	Off of Union Avenue.	Not Adams Street.	What is that street?		It's off of Union Avenue.	It comes right out from the --		Oh, what is the name of that street?	I ought never to forget it.	Union Avenue, Otsego Street and not Adams.	Is it Adams?	No, it's not Adams.
MD:	Stokes?
AS:		No, Stokes Street comes this way.	Here's Union Avenue and then here's the Main Street.	But this street.	What is the name of that street?	The American Legion on Union Avenue and then you come out from American Legion at the side and you go right out that street.
MD:	St. John?
AS:		No.	Yes, St. John.	There used to be a saloon on every corner.	Where the county bank is, that had a saloon and then there was one right next to it.	And then you went on down to the corner, there was Spencer's.	Then you went on down, oh, there was more saloons than you could shake a stick at.	We used to have the drunks would come and many a time grandmother got a stick and got them off the front
 
SHARP	35
porch. That was awful. And then they used to come­ in in their buggies and the horses and hitch them to the hitching post and the poor horses, in
wintertime, would be so cold.	The men would get in so drunk and the horse would take them home.	That's the truth.	But that was awful.	You didn't see so many women drunk, but, oh, dear me, the men.	There was a saloon on every corner.
MD:	Well, then, after Prohibition was it pretty dried up that no one could get liquor or did they have stills?
AS:		Oh, they'd get it.	They'll get that when they won't
get food.		Oh, it was awful.	I used to be scared to death of a drunken man.	They used to have Whalen's Saloon on Stokes Street next to Mr. Reason's Feed Store.	Russell Reason had a feed store and then the blacksmith shop.	The blacksmith shop, that has been turned into apartments.	It was a grocery store, but they used to take their horses there and shoe them and you could see where they had the fire to fit the horse shoes, you know, and that made a noise.	Oh, the fire house was next to grandmother's house, and that was just a two-wheeled thing and wound the hose around.		The man used to come and have to pull that thing.	They didn't have horses.
MD:	They didn't?
AS:	No.	The men used to pull that thing.	Then later on
 




SHARP	36
they got a hose wagon that you put the hose on here and it was yellow.	I can see it just as plain as day.	Not like they have now.	And they had a step in the back and then they had horses to pull it.
But lots of times the men would pull that thing. And when they used to ring the bells to notify us when there was a fire, the Catholic bell, and St. John's bell, I'd say, "Papa, where is it," because I was scared to death, little thing.	He'd say, "It's out in Dutton's woods," and that's out here some place at Dutton's woods.
MD:	Did you enjoy growing up downtown in Havre de Grace?
AS:		Indeed, I did.	I had a good time.	We had a good time.	We could go out in the evenings.	Some of my girlfriends now say, "Look at what we used to do and look what we can't do now."	Why, Levy's store and Lyon's Drugstore and where the beauty shop is on the corner of Franklin Street and St. John's Street, that used to be Cycler's Drugstore and they used to have to big things with a brass handle on either side and colored water in them for the drugstore.
We used to go to Mr. Lyon and tell him	When we
kids would get sick the parents would send them down and ask him to give the child a cocktail. That used to be castor oil and sasparilla. Oh, dear Lord.
 



SHARP	37
AS:		Oh, yes, and we used to have good times.	The children down on the point used to come up, or in Middletown.	And in the country, why, Madison
Mitchell, oh, we used to have grand times.	And Herb Colburn.	Children don't have times now like we  did.	It was good, clean fun.	Every Friday night we'd go to some --		We weren't allowed to go during school days, but Friday nights and Saturdays, if you got your lessons.		If you didn't get your lessons you couldn't go.	Well, we all made right that we got our lessons.	Oh, we used to have good times.
Our parents, they always had refreshments or something.		We used to play spin the pie pan and post office and all that kind of business.	Then in the springtime, May, oh, that was something Easter Monday to go out in the country and pick wild flowers.	Oh, we used to walk up Earlton Road and come down this way.	But you don't dare walk on this road now.
MD:	What about the 4th of July, what did they do for that then?	Do you remember anything?
AS:		Oh, yes.	Everybody had fireworks and they always had baseball.	In the afternoon, 4th of July you always had baseball and then at night everybody had their own fireworks.	Yes.	Everybody, neighbors, The city didn't have them, but the families, everybody laid in fireworks.
 



SHARP	38
MD:		I don't want to have left out anything.	And I don't want to knock these over.
AS:	That won't knock over.
MD:		I want to see if there's anything else that this writes about that we don't know about.
AS:		Oh, and the Catholic Church on the corner of Stoke Street and Adams, Father Fitzgerald, I can remember when he worked on building that new Catholic Church that's here now.
MD:		What's a "modern Dereus"?	What's that about, do you remember?
AS:	Me.
MD:	What does that mean?
AS:		Well, she took care of the sick.	That's in the Acts in the Bible.	I had to ask about that, but that's what they called me.
MD:	Let's see.	What's your Scripture that you live by?
AS:	"Let your light so shine among men.	They will see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven."
MD:		And that's sort of what you've lived by.		Let's see.	This talks about a	chair where your name is carved in the arm.	Let's see.	No.	That's your children's names are carved in a chair.	Where is it?
AS:	I don't know where it is now, but I know it was carved in.





 

 



SHARP	39
MD:	Let's see.	I think we've covered a good bit.
You've told me so much I'm overwhelmed.	You've gotten so many different awards from the state and the county and all.	Does that make you feel --
AS:		I tell you the truth, I think they've overdone it with me.
MD:	[laughs]	You do?
AS:		Yes, I do because I don't feel like I've done that much.
MD:		Well, you seem to be so unselfish about giving of yourself to helping others.
AS:		Oh, this was taken down in Florida.	That was my
uncle's home down in Florida.	I got it in there where how they pick oranges, too.
MD:	Now, why did you decide to go down to Florida?
AS:	The first time I went to Florida was in 1908.	My uncle went down and I had hooping cough and I was home sick.	He went down to look for a place, where he had this home that was being built.	He went down and took Mr. Sentman, his engineer of the boat.
They went down in December.	They went down in
October and came back in December.	He had this home and in 1908 we went down there.	I went down until I was in high school and then my eyes got bad and then I had to stop.	Now, this is my aunt.	She was feeding the squirrels.
MD:	It's very beautiful down there.
 
SHARP	40
AS:		This was my mother's mother and her father and cousin and my mother.	And this was my aunt, and this is Uncle Steven, and that's my grandmother that raised me.	And that's Uncle Robert.	Well, I hope I haven't bored you.
MD:		No, no.	It's been very interesting.	You've really had so many things to tell, and I don't want to cut you off, but we've talked about so many things I'm really surprised about all the details that you remember about Havre de Grace.
AS:		Oh, I can really tell you some tales.	I really can.	I'll take these off of your lap.		I just love to talk about Havre de Grace because dear to your heart are the scenes of your childhood and mine are dear to me.	Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Parker, he used to be a plumber here and they lived right next door to
my aunt and uncle.	Well, she was just like a mother to me because she was pregnant the same time mother was.	I think I was born first, but however, she was always very dear to me.	She said that mother worked
Oh, that corner where the bridge comes over.
You come down Otsego Street and make that turn into Union Avenue or	Oh, what's the street?	The business street where the American Legion is.	There used to be a store.	Where the bridge was there used to be a store and it was called the Racket Store.	I never knew that until this year.	I forget who it
 
 



SHARP	41
was who told me, and they used to have a tin roof that went around.	My father used to, from the White chapel, the store, he used to come home at noon and I'd watch him when he came around that corner on his bicycle.	Then it was bicycle days.	And then Mr.
Currier, Curriers, they lived up on Otsego Street. Mrs. Currier, they had cows.	Oh, I ought to tell you this.	Where the Bancherry Apartments is, that used to be known as the Harford House.	That used to be the head place for sportsmen to come in ducking season from New York.	They'd come down on Fridays and go back on Saturdays and they'd have their ducks.	Mr. Boyd used to have a boat and people used to come down and he used to take them from Havre de Grace down to the battery to see the spawning of the fish.
MD:	That's amazing.
AS:		And then we used to have a lot of fun.	Moonlight Nights, Old Susquehanna, Kitty Night, and Annapolis, one of the three used to come up and stop here at 6:00 and pick us up.		We could get on the boat and we'd go up to Port.	We'd get an extra ride, and then coming back they'd stop and take us down to Betterton and then bring us home at 10:00.	That was fun.		We had good, clean fun.	But now you can't do it.	You're just scared.	I was in a taxi night before last and my taxi said that one my taxi
 
SHARP	42
drivers, he had been robbed and took every cent he had and had his life threatened with a knife, and they didn't get him.	They said they will get him.
But that's awful.	You're scared to death.	Well, I certainly have enjoyed talking to you.
MD:	Yes.	May I take your picture?
AS:	[chuckles]	Yes.	Where do you want to take it? MD:	Wherever.
AS:		Well, where do you want it?	Where do you think would be a good place?
MD:	Well, let's see.	Right here?	Maybe if I open the
door there will be a little more light.
AS:	Alright.
MD:	It feels like it's turning a little cooler. AS:	Well, that's alright.
MD:	Okay.
AS:	I'm afraid I've talked you deaf, dumb and --
MD:		No, no, no.	Would you mind sitting here instead so then I would have a little better background.	I've feel like you've been sitting so long talking to me.
AS:	No, I get stiff anyway. MD:	Okay.
AS:	Would you like the light on a little bit more?
MD:	I'm getting reflection.	Oh, this has to
AS:	Turn it around.	I don't think I got it on all the
 


MD:
 
way. No.
 
Do you want to take the shade off?
That should be light enough, I think.	Let me
 
•


SHARP	43
just check.	Let me just open this a little bit.
End of Interview