Pat Hall was born on October 12, 1946, and is sixty-four years old. She was born and raised in Alamance County, and has lived there all of her life. Mrs. Hall lived with her parents until they got a divorce when she was nine. Her mother, Mary, died when she was nine and she moved in with her father, John, and step-mother, Thelma. Mrs. Hall was influenced and helped raised by many members of her family because they all lived in close proximity of each other and worked on the farms together.  She grew up farming, mostly in tobacco and continued to grow tobacco for the first couple of years of her marriage. Mrs. Hall started dating and got married at age sixteen to James Thomas Hall. They had two children, Donnie and Kim, by the time she was eighteen and several years later they had their third child, Lori. Mrs. Hall worked several jobs, including Woolworth’s lunch counter, Glen Raven Mills, Bell’s apparel store, and her current job at Carolina Biological. She has six grandchildren and her proudest achievements in life are her children.

On Equality

Patricia Hall discusses her feelings on equality between males and females today.  As Patricia said in the interview:

Well I am a woman so I should say, “I just think it’s great,” but there again I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. I mean, I remember how life used to be and it was much simpler. Now granted I think that it’s wonderful that if a woman is out there doing certain jobs that she can make what a man could make. I suppose it will never – it’s never going back – you can’t go back. So I mean if a woman is out there doing the same thing a man is doing, then she should be making what a man is making. [CR: I agree.] I know that sounds a little… [CR: No.] I’m sort of torn between that. I mean, I remember how it was, and it seems like if you are coming along today you would look back and think women weren’t treated fairly. But, you know, they didn’t have all the pressure on them that you have today. I mean it was just a whole different world. It was. Things were a lot less complicated.

Listen to the audio of Pat’s response about her feelings on equality.

On Rural Life

Well, when they were real little we were raising tobacco. And actually when your mother was born -[CR: Mm- hmm.] she was probably – maybe a year old – maybe not even a year old – when we decided we were going to move back to where his daddy, his mother, and grandparents lived. And live in this little house and raise tobacco [CR: Mm-hmm.] for this tobacco season. [CR: Right.] But we had to move back and it was probably March, it was still cold. But the house didn’t a bathroom, it didn’t have any running water. It wasn’t even wired for an eclectic stove but he had it wired for an electric stove. But we moved back in this house with two babies in diapers, and no bathroom for one tobacco season. And like I said, that usually starts in March because you’re starting to plant and everything. And it runs through, maybe, October when you’re starting to get everything sold. So we lived there and that was a experience. Going to the laundry mat, pulling water up in a well with two babies in two diapers. And we didn’t have pampers – we had diapers – [CR: Like cloth?] cloth diapers. So that was a experience. And I’d have to take them to the tobacco field in the playpen. And we would sit the playpen up, and they would be right there in the playpen while we were doing tobacco. But, you know, we made a whole lot of money off of that tobacco crop. And so we did it for that one season. [CR: Right.]

Listen to the audio of Pat’s response about rural life.

On Dating – Rules and Restrictions

My daddy had to meet everybody I dated. He had to have them come in and get to know them. And I had to double date, and I had to be home. If Daddy wasn’t there when your date come you had to wait till he got there, because you couldn’t just get in your car and leave. He had to personally see you getting in the car with who ever you were going with. And you had to be home by eleven o’clock so if you were at the movies and it ran late, too bad, you had to leave before it ended. Because you had to be home before eleven o’clock or you were going to be grounded. And you knew you better not call and say, “Is it okay if I’m coming late.” You’d be grounded even worse [laughs]. And when we came home from a date we couldn’t sit out in the car. [CR: You came right in?] Yes, you couldn’t pull up in the driveway, and just sit out there with a boy in the car. No, you didn’t do that. So yeah it was pretty strict [laughter] growing up.

Listen to the audio excerpt about Pat’s response about dating – rules and restrictions.

On Work Experiences

Okay. Well she set in front of me – in the machine in front of me. And back then, you know, people would smoke but they would take their breaks and run to the bathroom and have a cigarette or whatever. But when you were in production and you were pushing to make that money, you know. You didn’t do a lot of talking, everybody was really pushing hard. And I can remember one day I was just pushing away trying to make get them stockings sewed, and heard Peggy say, “Pat.” And, you know, I didn’t stop to look. I could hear her saying my name but, you know, I didn’t. She said, “Pat,” and I would say, “What?” [Laughter] And she had the needle – the needle had went down – she got her finger up there, and some how another that needle went down through her finger. [CR: Ahh. Oh my gosh.] And she was just sitting there with the needle through her finger. And I said, “Oh Peggy!” [Laughs] [CR: Like all the way through?] Yeah. Oh Peggy [laughs]! [CR: Oh, gross.] And they got it out. They had to take her to get her a tetanus shot. I mean, it was like a when they pierce your ear, you know? It was a little sharp needle. [CR: But all the way through her finger, uhh?] Uh-uhn. It went right down through there, and her little finger was sort of hung right there [laughs].

Listen to the audio about Pat’s work experiences.

On Southern Women

Asked about the ideal appearance for Southern women, Pat explained:

Well, you always wanted to look nice. You wouldn’t have went out in public not looking nice, you know. When I go out now, that’s one of things I’ve noticed that’s changed so much. You know, when we were growing up and coming along – when we went places and went out in public – I mean, you were dressed. [CR: Mm-hmm.] Your hair was fixed, your make-up was on, and you were dressed. But now you go out, and I mean you see people out anywhere – [CR: I know.] they just don’t take any pride in their appearance. I don’t know if I gave you a good description [CR: You did.] of a Southern belle. But you know, I think it’s a stereotype when they say Southern belle and people are thinking of somebody in a ball gown. But [CR: Yeah.] you know, a Southern belle to me is just a, you know, a lady that’s well groomed and well dressed. And in my era, when I’m saying my time – that a Southern girl was someone that took a lot of pride in their appearance, and their appearance of their home, and their family. And they took a lot of pride in their manners, being polite…

Listen to the audio of Pat’s response about Southern women.

Ann Reynolds grew up in a Christian home in Wilkesboro, North Carolina with her mom, dad and brother. She lived there till she left to go to Agnus Scott, an all girls college, in Atlanta. After her freshman year she transferred to The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where she met great friends that she still has today. After college she moved to Charlotte, NC where she became a pharmacist. She met her husband in there, then moved to Burlington for his job after the wedding. She has three children and is a breast cancer survivor. Ann loves to travel and go to her weekly bible studies. Christianity to Ann is about the relationship and not the religion.

On morals in college:

I’ve been a teetotaler my whole life. Kind of made up my mind that people asked me why I’d say, “Number one I don’t like the taste, and number two I don’t want anything that is going to control me, I want to be in control of myself.” [SG: Right.] It hasn’t been a hard challenge. It’s just been one that I have personally had my agenda that I don’t need it, so I’m not going to succumb to what the world says is acceptable, you know? So even through college I was unique.

Listen to the audio of Ann’s response about her morals.

On her and her husband’s relationship

Well, we have grown so much in our faith since then. I would probably, you know, put the Lord first. Another thing is just, I think you need to outdo each other in how much you love each other. I particularly was a taker in our relationship. I saw my mother was a taker in her relationship, if you know what I mean? Fairfax was a natural giver. I don’t mean materially, I meant – he would give up his ways so that I could have my way. That was the example that I had had given to me. When I really started studying the Bible, I just realized that was wrong, total wrong thinking. That I was to be submissive to my husband. We are all to be submissive to each other. But our relationship grew so much more when I understood that how selfish I was. God just started changing me little by little and showing me my selfishness.

Listen to the audio of Ann’s response about her marriage.

Ann explains how she instills Christianity into her children

Well we started out taking them to church all the time. That was never an option whether you go to church at our house, we did. But as I became deeper in my faith and realized it was more a relationship than it was religion. I started living out the relationship, whereas the Lord came first in my life and before He didn’t come first. It was family first. [SG: Right.] Maybe church came high up there, but not Jesus because I didn’t really know that relationship with Jesus so how did I give it to my children. [SG: Right.] I think you live it out and that’s how you show it to your children. [SG: Right.] I think when Heath made that statement our whole family changed when my mom started bible study is because the relationship became real to me and she saw that.

Listen to the audio excerpt about Ann’s life.

Ann was very proud of her children. Here she talks about her oldest daughter, Heath

I always describe Heath to somebody that it was like the light came on in the room when she walked through. [SG: Right.] She was full of joy and just, you know, she was maturing, she was sharing things that were on her heart and just it was great.

Listen to the audio about her children.

Battle with cancer and relationship with God

That is a testimony that I wasn’t afraid. I know that was Him. I knew that the worst thing in life is not dying. If He took my life, He took my life. I knew my family, you know, I knew Heath was a strong enough leader that she would take care of the family from the maternal part. I knew Fairfax would find another wife, that everybody was saved at that point. So death was not really a frightening thing to me. [SG: Oh my gosh.] It wasn’t. He just really, gosh, I just felt the Lord’s presence in a way that I… you don’t ever invite that kind of stuff into your life ‘cause, you just don’t [laughs]. But the challenges of watching God work in the midst of my cancer was really something that I’ll never forget. It taught me that everything in that book over there is true [Pointing toward The Bible].

Listen to the audio of Ann’s response about her cancer experience.

Born in 1942, Janice Allman is now sixty-eight years old. She grew up with what she refers to as “Christian heritage,” in a pastor’s home. She was married to Pastor Max Allman until his death seven years ago. She has three children who provided her with fourteen grandchildren. When she is not spending time with family, Mrs. Allman volunteers at the Cancer Center, participates in church activities and manages her cake business.

On Marriage

Janice shares her views on marriage, and discusses her relationship with her late husband, Max.

I really think to have to a good marriage: first of all, it’s got to be grounded with the Lord first. And He’s got to be at the head of your house. And then the Bible says that the man is to be the head of the house. He is to be the spiritual leader. And I think that a man should take that responsibility, and that the wife should let him. Too often I think we tend to think it demeans us, if we can’t have our say. And I’m not saying you’re not supposed to discuss things with each other, I think that’s just common courtesy that you discuss and make plans together. And you make decisions together. But as far as one being over the other, I don’t think being head of the house is being. I didn’t consider him being over me, because he loved and adored me. And he told me that the morning that he died. He came in and said, “I just thank God for you.”

Listen to the audio of Janice’s response about her marriage.

On “The Little Things”

The selection below emphasizes the intertwinement of Janice’s idea of God and her daily routine.

I used to sew a lot for people. And I made most of my children’s clothes. And there would be times where I would get very perturbed at my sewing machine because the thread would break, or the bob[bin] would mess up. And I would literally, when I would sit down to sew, I would ask God, “Please, Lord, help this come out.” Maybe my cakes stuck because I didn’t say, “Help my cakes not stuck.” [Both laugh.] I do so much baking that whenever I take a pound cake out of the oven, I always say, “Lord, please let this come out and not stick,” and it does. I mean, you know [laughs]. Of course this was a new recipe and it may be that I just didn’t grease it quite enough at the bottom, but it’s you know. And a lot of people think, “Oh, that’s silly.” But no, I think God is interested in the little things just as good as He is the big things.

Listen to the audio of Janice’s response about the little things.

On Motherhood

Janice discusses what she considers the hardest part of motherhood.

When you see your children hurt. I don’t care how old they get, they’re still your kids. And you think, “Oh, once they get married, they’re gone.” They’re not. And they hurt, you hurt. It’s just like when they were little and they’re sick, you want to take that pain away, but you can’t. You’d like to be suffering for them when they’re hurting, earaches, whatever, whatever their sickness is.

Listen to the audio excerpt about motherhood.

On Giving Back

Janice volunteers regularly at the Cancer Center. The following conveys what inspires her as she works there.

Well I started that two years ago this past May. In fact, I worked six months when I found out I had cancer. A lot of people say, “Oh, I couldn’t stand to work there,” but I tell you what, it will improve your outlook on life, because you see people come through there every age. Old. Young. Newly married. Fathers expecting [their] first child, in there they find out they have cancer. But I don’t care how bad they might look, you rarely hear any negative response. They come in there and say, “Hey, how are you today?” [The cancer patients say,] “I’m good, I’m good,” but yet they look like they could hardly walk through the door.

Listen to the audio about giving back.

On Peace

After discovering she had breast cancer, Janice found herself at a turning point in her life. In this excerpt, she talks about how she felt.

Two years ago when I was told I had breast cancer, it hit me like, “Oh, my goodness. Cancer. The terrible word.” But just as quick, God me gave me peace. And the fact that I’ve got this in control, you know. And a lot of people go all to pieces but that’s not going to heal the cancer, and that’s not going to make it any worse to lose control or to go ballistic. And I know my son came to me, Chris said, “Mom, are you really that calm about this, or are you just putting a show on for us?” And said, “No, God’s given me peace.”

Listen to the audio of Janice’s response about peace.

Cheryl Jeffries is a primary care physician practicing at Burlington’s Kernodle Clinic.  She was born in Alamance County but moved to Maryland at seven years old when her mother re-married.  She came back to North Carolina when she decided to go Duke University for undergraduate education.  Dr. Jeffries attended medical school at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Dr. Jeffries is very active in the community and is involved with a faith-based health improvement ministry.  She has also been instrumental in helping her clinic became more welcoming to female physicians.

On being a female African-American doctor

Cheryl tends to feel there are more issues in medicine related to gender rather than race.  This is apparent in her response to some of her experiences:

Female African-American doctor?  Yeah, I have had patients, they think you’re the nurse – and I don’t know if that’s more of a gender thing. You go in the room in the hospital to take a history and examine the patient, and they’re like, “When’s the doctor coming?” “Ma’am, I am the doctor.” Or “Sir, I am the doctor.”  I don’t know so much as a racist thing, probably more of a gender thing. They assume the doctor is going to be a boy, or they did back then, just assume the doctor’s going to be a guy.  When they saw you, and they’re like, “Excuse me, nurse! Nurse!”  That occasionally happens today. When I went into private practice, I think in residency it wasn’t such an issue because you’re taking care of a lot of indigent patients at that time, so they were just happy to get any care that they could get.  There was not a lot of issues of that kind of thing, “I don’t want her taking care of me.”  I don’t ever really remember experiencing that.

Listen to the audio of Cheryl’s response about her experience as a doctor.

On Spirituality

Well, I think, from being young, I’ve always had a spiritual foundation. My theory on happiness is that you have to have something to believe in that’s bigger than yourself, you have to have something meaningful to do, you have to have somebody to love or take care of, and then you have to have something to look forward to.  Those are my four personal things that I need to have in my life to have balance. I’m finding that my daughter is the same way.  So when I’m sort of spiritually out of balance or not spiritually connected, then things aren’t going right. When I don’t feel like I’m involved in some sort of project that is helping somebody else, then things aren’t going right. I always need something to look forward to. I need a trip, or I need a vacation, or I need something to look forward to. I have kids and significant others, there’s always somebody to love and take care of, somebody always has a need.

Listen to the audio of Cheryl’s response about spirituality.

On differences between certain cities in North Carolina

Cheryl has lived in several cities in North Carolina.  Here she describes some of them:

Well, Durham is Durham. I was there at the university. Durham has really grown, and it’s become a very nice town, but at that time, it was Duke, and then it was Durham. The two just didn’t mix.  So I don’t really have much experience with Durham.  Chapel Hill, of course, I think Chapel Hill and Asheville are the two places in North Carolina that are somewhat eclectic and contemporary and are probably the most liberal cities in North Carolina.  I would say Asheville, Asheville’s really eclectic and kind of liberal and Chapel Hill, so Chapel Hill was a fun place to be and to live and to work. Charlotte is a big city. Booming, growing city, and much bigger now than when I was there, I think.  I left Charlotte in 1992, so I was there from 1986 to 1992. Incredible growth, a lot of young people going there to work in the financial industry, and so it was a yuppy, young urban professional-type place.  So it was a good place to be, socially, and when I was in training, even though you’re on call every third night, you still find some time to socialize at that point.  And all the cities are unique. I like North Carolina, I think you get a little bit of everything in North Carolina.

Listen to the audio excerpt about Cheryl describing North Carolina cities.

On her most rewarding community involvement

Community involvement is very important to Cheryl, as seen through the faith-based health improvement ministry related to her work:

I think probably the most rewarding thing has been this faith-based health improvement initiative because I think we’re going to see more and more of that. That’s been fun and rewarding. I can see it carrying on. Every once a year, the group will say, “We need to get another one of those classes! Everybody’s getting fat again! We need to do our class over!” So people, they re-do the class, and people get motivated and get back on track. We have made some changes in our communities and in our churches that alter the eating, and they’ll remind each other. They’re going through the line at the homecoming dinner, “You know you’re not supposed to eat that fried stuff!” So made some changes. We’ve actually had a nutritionist come out, had somebody go out with them shopping at the grocery store. Each week in the class, you do a little different thing. So that’s been fun.

Listen to the audio about the health improvement ministry.

Reflections on her proudest achievements

Cheryl is a very accomplished woman, as a mother and a physician.  Here she discusses some of her most significant sacrifices, choices, and skills:

I don’t know, I think you make sacrifices, and you make choices. I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices in terms of career things because I wanted to have a family, and my children have always been the most important thing, most important part of my life.  I think that women in general don’t hang their self-worth on their careers or what they do. That’s just a part of who they are. Men tend to have their whole self-worth tied up in their careers and how much money they make and their successes in terms of their careers. I don’t feel that at all.  I mean, I think I’m good at what I do, and I’m probably good at what I do because of the skills that I possess that have nothing to do with medicine. The same skills that I possess that make me good at being a good mommy. So I guess those would probably be the achievements, the chief of staff and being the oldest and only African-American female partner.

Listen to the audio of Cheryl’s response about her proudest achievements.

Susan Yow is the youngest of four siblings, including her older sister Kay who is one of the most well-renowned college basketball coaches in the history of the sport.  Kay is most known for her perseverance through her battle with breast cancer and recording one of the highest win totals in college basketball history.  Debbie Yow, another one of Susan’s older siblings, is the athletic director at N.C. State University, and their older brother played football at Clemson University.  Susan has made her mark on the athletic world as well.  Throughout her career, Susan has twenty four years of Division I coaching experience and spent four seasons coaching professional in the Women’s National Basketball Association.  She was born on August 5^th, 1954 in Gibsonville, N.C. and is the current women’s basketball coach at Belmont Abbey College, located in Charlotte, N.C. 

Kay Yow’s cancer battle

It was hard.  It’s just hard.  But Kay handled it so well, it made it easier for everyone.  It really did.  As it got down to the last year and a half or so, we knew it was terminal.  We’ve always known that.  We knew it was level four cancer, but nobody knows your time or day part in this world.  As it got closer you could see the deterioration in her body, that was hard.  But Kay just did a great job handling it.  It made it really easier for everyone.  I don’t think you can ever prepare for death of someone, but having lost our mom to cancer and watching that, to me I was able to prepare myself a little bit for it.  I really was and to really ponder what it was going to be like not to have her here.  It was hard because she and I talked after every game I had ever coached.  Not to have her to pick up the phone to call her after a game was really really strange and really hard.  The year I was here, the rest of that season, I always called her and told her about the game.  But she made it easy, she really made easy how she handled things and her faith and just her enthusiasm for life.  She never lost that.  It was fun all the way up until the very very end until probably the last three weeks and then she was so weak and was in the hospital and stayed in the hospital and that was a hard time.  But, many many people go through it, you just deal with it

Listen to the audio of Susan’s response about her sister’s cancer battle.

A lesson Kay taught her

One thing she taught me and she kind of taught me this when I was at Elon – whatever you do, do your very very best.  Whatever you do, just do your very very best.  It’s what’s on the inside that counts really.

Listen to the audio of Susan’s response about a lesson her sister taught her.

Challenges with coaching

It’s just a lot of pressure.  I admire those people that do it and can do it with great integrity and not lose their values and not be bought, not sell their soul and put your head down every night.

Listen to the audio excerpt about Susan’s thought on the challenges with coaching.

Difference between men’s and women’s basketball

The biggest difference is an age old problem or concern.  They play above the rim, we play below the rim.  They really do and that’s the biggest difference.  ‘Cause you know we can’t dunk, we can’t do alley oops.  And for that reason we don’t have the power the men have in the game as far as the thrust, and we don’t have the speed nor the quickness that they have, but other than that I think in some regards I think our game might be better because I think we are more fundamental and we play more as a unit and we’re not individualized so much because we don’t have that athleticism.

Listen to the audio about the difference in men’s and women’s basketball.

Religion

I think I was called here.  I think I’m supposed to be here.  My Christian faith is where all of my values are wrapped up in; everything is wrapped up in that, the Ten Commandments.  Doing to others that you have them do onto you, it’s all wrapped up into that.

Listen to the audio of Susan’s response about her values.

Mrs. Slifkin may be known around the state most for her development of the first National Organization for Woman chapter in Chapel Hill as well as her development of the Rape Crisis Center there. Mrs. Slifkin was born on May 24, 1925, in Birmingham, Alabama.   Mrs. Slifkin attended college at the University of Alabama to study chemistry and other sciences. She graduated and received her bachelor’s when she was 21 in 1946.  Mrs. Slifkin’s began her research in Mycology at Princeton and continued it while moving through in Urbana, Illinois, and during her time in graduate school at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill through a division of the Botany Department. Being a woman in the science field in the mid twentieth century was an experience that was controlled by gender. From listening to Mrs. Slifkin talk about her early life and careers, it is clear that her experiences inside and out of the workplace led her to her interest and passion for the Women’s Movement.

On changing her name

Mrs. Slifkin had an interesting experience with her name after her marriage to Larry Slifkin:

I was born Miriam Kressus, and I was identified as Miriam Kressus until I got married. And when I went to get my license – Larry wasn’t there at the time – they wanted to know what my married name will be. And I said, “Miriam Kressus.” And they said, “You can’t.” This was in Alabama. And I said, “Why not? That’s my name.” He says, “You’ll take your husband’s name, it’s the law.” [GO: Wow.] So I was kind of angry about this. I tried to find reasons to be happy about it. And the only reason I could find is that when I was smaller, I was teased, because there was a big chain store Kress, HS Kress, and people used to laugh at me and say I was very wealthy when the opposite was the truth. It was Depression and we were quite poor [Laugh] So I had this anger of being forced. I mean, had it been voluntary, I think I would have felt a lot different.

Listen to the audio of Miriam’s response about her name.

On sex discrimination

When Mrs. Slifkin was applying to jobs after graduate school, she had some trouble getting together her recommendations:

NIHS, which is the Research Triangle Park, this is back when they were first starting, and I applied to them, and you have to have people who will recommend you, references. Dr. Couch, who was theoretically my advisor, had to be one of them. And I got a note from the people I had applied to, and they said, “We’re sorry but we’ve only got two recommendations and you should have three.” And I called them up and asked who was lacking. It was Dr. Couch. And I went into his office and said, “Why didn’t you recommend me?” and he said, “Oh I was afraid you would leave Larry.” There was a chair by his desk and I took that chair, I was so angry, and I took it and went ram! [motion of breaking the chair]. And he said, “Give me, I’ll sign it.” I was so angry. I mean usually I keep my cool very well. But boy, I exploded.

Listen to the audio of Miriam’s response about this experience.

On race and sex discrimination

Mrs. Slifkin talks about her experiences with racial tension while working in a government run lab in Alabama:

I was working in the lab one day, everybody got on beautifully. The man, I don’t know what he was supposed to be. He was supposed to be the head of it, but he did what I did. He probably got paid twice as much. He was quiet he didn’t say anything. But the man that was in charge of the whole operation, all of the state, had an office connected to our laboratory. Well, one day he was in the office and he decided we were making noise. It turned out, one of the black women, a young very attractive young lady, had gotten engaged. She had a ring on. At lunchtime she was showing people the ring, everybody the black and the white. The women weren’t so restrictive as men were. Everybody was cooing over it. And this boss comes in, he said, “What’s going on?” He was just curious. She showed him her ring. He pulled up her dress and started to feel. The other black women, they had Coca-Cola’s you could buy in the lab. They broke the bottles and surrounded him with these broken bottles and threatened him. He got out of there fast. [GO: Oh, yeah] The next thing we knew, his secretary came out with a little board giving names saying, “You’re fired, you’re fired, you’re fired…” All of the black women were fired for threatening him. [GO: Oh my God] Well, I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand it. I went in the office, and said I’m quitting. I just left.

Listen to the audio of Miriam’s response about this experience.

On early activism

Early meetings of the Chapel Hill National Organization for Women Chapter:

First we’d meet in other people’s houses on Monday nights because their husbands would listen to the Monday Night Football or something. Their husbands disappeared so it was very nice for them. They were mostly students so they were in small places. As we grew bigger I said, “Come here.” I asked Larry if it was all right with him, he said, “Yeah. I won’t bother you. I’ll go in the back and leave you alone.” He couldn’t stand it; he couldn’t stand it. We’d get settled here. The first thing he does is comes out, “Can I get you ladies something?” You know, and they would order, “Oh, I’ll have a coke. I’ll have cookies or whatever.” He’d usually come out with a thing of cookies and say, “Can I get you something to drink?” But, I said, “Larry what’d you promise me?” He said, “Oh I just wanted to make sure everybody had refreshments.” [Train goes by] He was so funny.

Listen to the audio about the early NOW meetings.

Experiences leading to activism

The progressive inspiration for the beginning of the Rape Crisis Center in Chapel Hill:

When I was publicized as NOW everybody thought of me as NOW even though there were other people working in it too. People started calling me with problems. I would more or less let them come to my house or I’d meet them at coffee you know in some way if it wasn’t too private. I tried to get out of the house. But some of them saying, “Well I hate to be in a public place.” They would come in. Actually they would usually sit on this couch and we would look out the woods. I found that that made people calmer. So often a woman would come in and she was nervous and she wants to talk but she can’t. I’d just sit up like this on this couch, this couch in very old and it’s heard a lot.

Listen to the audio of Miriam’s response about her meeting with rape victims.

Tammy on Family

Tammy’s brothers were among the first in NC to be integrated into primarily white schools as minorities.  In response to a question about whether she worried about them, Tammy said:

“I didn’t because I was so young.  Just hearing stories as I grew up, yes, I feel like there were some tense times, there were a lot of derogatory and very degrading words that I heard, that were thrown at my brothers and that were said to them.  And yes, as an ethnic person, even to this day you are in fear of your life all the time. And I know that sounds extreme, but you have to really understand, that even though civil rights are there, but it’s almost like you’re in fear that at any time they could be taken away from you.”

Listen to the audio of Tammy’s response:

Tammy on Farm Work

Since farming went back multiple generations on both sides of her family, she was always helping out one of her family members with a farm related task.

“And on the farm, it was always something to do.  If it wasn’t helping in the fields, which in the summer time was a big thing, it was the matter of taking care of whatever needed to be taken care of around the house, around the barn.  I will say at the stores we were always packing soda boxes, we would always have to wipe off counters, if someone came in and you needed to prepare an order of food, even though back then children should not have been doing that, you would chip in and do that.  If it was a time that we were out of school, going in the morning like at five and six o’clock and preparing onions and tea, and preparing the food to be served at the restaurant.  In the summer time you always had to work in tobacco. So we were at the barn, and the girls would stay at the barn to do the tying of the tobacco, and the men would go out and pull the tobacco, and that was an all-day process.  So it was never a time that you didn’t have things to do.”

Listen to the audio of  Tammy’s response about farm work:

Tammy on Work

When asked about what her happiest moment at Elon was, Tammy replied:

“Oh, my happiest moment.  Gosh, there is so many.  I think it’s just the everyday feeling of being valued.  You know, happy moments are like when I see students graduating on graduation day and remembering them as a freshman, and then they have that senior swagger, that confidence and that you know that even though they’re leaving, that you had a special time with them.  And I’ll get a little misty, when I think about that.”

Listen to the audio excerpt:

Tammy on Leisure

When asked about what she did in her free time, Tammy replied:

“Well, I work a lot with my tribe, the Occoneechee tribe, we’re based out of Mebane, and we’re a non-profit.  So, a lot of work with them, there are meetings, there’s a lot of planning that we do.  With being a non-profit we’re always in that fund-raising mode because we survive off of grants and donations and that’s really a lot of time consuming work, but very fulfilling.  You can always find something to do.  Also, I’m part of the Alamance County Astronomy Club, and that is just a great outlet if you’re interested in astronomy, whether you have a total scientific knowledge, or you’re someone just interested in what’s going on in the sky and identifying stuff.  So, I really enjoy that as well as trying my best to connect with my family, working from 7:15 and not getting home till six o’clock, a lot of times I never see my neighbors, even though my in-laws live next door, you’re lucky to get a phone call in to them maybe two or three times a week, so there are a lot things where I catch up on as far as phone calls or going to see people, and being indigenous, I have a lot of relatives around that I really like to stay in touch with.”

Listen to the audio:

Tammy on Traveling

Tammy has never been on a plane, but she still wants to travel.

“No, need to do a lot.  I haven’t had those opportunities; I would love to go everywhere.  I have never flown, and not that that I’m afraid to because I would get on a plane in a heartbeat [laughs], so if there was a space shuttle, yes, I’m there.  Now, I’m not going to go on a cruise, I’ll tell you that.  Water and with me not swimming [AB: And all that recent news anyway.] Well, yes [laughs].  You know, not that I have anything against Spam, not a meal of choice.”

Listen to the audio of Tammy’s response:

On Her Name

She reflected on her name and being a twin:

As I said mother was 47 we were the eighth and ninth children that she had had. She had already used the name Mary in a previous child’s name, Mary Catherine, and so she was left to give another name to me thought she had chosen, Martha, Martha Sue and then Mildred Lue, so we would have rhyming name. We had a nice big farmhouse and her bedroom was large, so we had a crib in the bedroom where she and my father slept and it was a nice crib with iron rails. Both of us could sleep in that crib and then I understand that at times she would find us with my thumb in my sister’s mouth and my sister’s thumb in my mouth.

Listen to the audio of Mitchie’s response about her name.

On Her Father Growing Tobacco

Reflecting on her father refusing to grow tobacco:

All of them were separate farms. Ours was probably the largest. It was at the time people were growing tobacco. My father did not believe that tobacco would be good for you. Though tobacco was the money crop in the neighborhood, he refused, we did not ever grow tobacco. He did not like for people to be smoking, he would not allow people the smoke at our house, he always talked against people that were smoking that would cause them to die. If anybody died, it was because they smoked. That was a big embarrassment to us, that he was so vocal against that. However no one in our family smoked, you know, as long they lived.

Listen to the audio of Mitchie’s response.

On Education

Mitchie speaks on her educational experience:

Education was a very big part in our family. That was something we just grew up knowing that we would go to college. Even though we were poor. My sisters had gone to college with father selling produce; at it was then Women’s Colleges UNCG. He would furnish produce to the college for them to go to school. The pecans and at Thanksgiving and Christmas we always sold turkeys. That was how we all went to college, by his determination.

Listen to the audio excerpt about Mitchie’s about her education.

Life During WWII

Mitchie talks about her life during the Second World War:

I mean v-mails and I do remember the sugar rationing. I remember making a speech about raising money for war bond, but I don’t remember raising any money, [NF: Laughs] but maybe we did. We were concerned about the seriousness of the war in Germany and Japan, but we were busy raising the crops because that was just necessary of course most people called it “victory gardens” but ours was more than a victory garden because we were really producing a la sweet potatoes, and we were just selling corn, big things.

Listen to the audio about life during World War Two.

On College Experiences

Mitchie reflects about her experiences on meeting new people and experiences in college:

She was a Christian Scientist it just slipped me. She didn’t try to convert me but her parents did come down to visit two of three times to North Carolina, we would have them. I was so appreciative of everything they did.  I was just a friend to their daughter and so they were really enjoyed having me around, a little country girl that had never seen anything. So they had me to come up for Spring Break to see them and that was my first experience on a train and first experience to NY and it was just such a treat.

Listen to the audio of Mitchie’s response about her college life.

Ms. Augusta Garrison is an 82 year old woman who was born in Hamlet, North Carolina.  At the age of 18, she found out that she was adopted and that she had five sisters and one brother. She lived in Hamlet until she got married and moved to New Jersey so her husband could find work.  She worked as a nursing assistant before getting married and then raised five children.  After living in New Jersey for over 21 years, Ms. Garrison returned to her childhood home in Hamlet to take care of her mother.  She stayed in that house after her mother’s passing and still lives there today. 

On Living in New Jersey

Ms. Garrison was describing the night her husband wanted to show her the progress on the plant he was working on.  She described being disinterested in the plant and generally upset about living in the north:

Anyway, we started over there, got over there near Shiloh and I bust out, I said, “I don’t want to go see no plant, I’m going back to Hamlet—where people talk to you!” Because I didn’t even have him to talk to, and you can’t talk to a baby.  You can talk to them but…you know?  I had gotten very very upset living there.  And he didn’t know it, I never let him know it.  And he turned the car around, we never did get to see the plant.   

Listen to the audio of Augusta’s response about her experience in New Jersey.

On Men’s and Women’s Work

Men made more and everybody knew that.  I mean, this was standard knowledge.  Everybody knew men made more than women, doing the same thing…could do the same things.  And now women have, I think in my opinion, have worked theyselves into a corner.  They can do the work men do, and they should get the pay men get, but the more they know how to do, the more they gonna start to do and the men’s gonna have to sit back home.  And I don’t think God created this that way; I think He created women to take care of His children when He put them on Earth. 

Listen to the audio of Augusta’s response about wages.

On How Women’s Lives Have Changed

A woman got up, and she did a job all day in the morning to wash the clothes and did the house work and all to go visiting’ in the afternoon.  And you know your neighbors.  Now, I’m not talking about doing snobby things, like playing’ bridge everyday and all that, but just interacting with other people.  And you know their families, their families know your families and it’s like you belong to a community of people that care about you.  Now, women work, they have to…They have to work now!  Two people have got to have a job now, there’s no getting around it. Because things are so high and so nobody has time to communicate or even sit down and visit.

Listen to the audio excerpt about Augusta’s description of how women’s lives have changed.

On Differences

When asked about differences in regions and races, Ms. Garrison said:

There is a difference in the way that people are made, in the way they are, and in the way they have been raised, and in the work of the south…but you still love everybody because God made them all. Like I said, they all want to be up there. The ones believe in Jesus Christ, they going’ to be right there. So if you can’t get along with them here what you gonna do up there? You gonna say, “No, I’m going’ down there?” Uh-uh. No. Uh-uh.

Listen to the audio about differences.

Moving from the South to the North

Ms. Garrison was asked why she made the move from North Carolina, where she grew up and met her husband, to New Jersey, where he husband was raised. 

We couldn’t find any work down there.  He was a Yankee.  It’s the truth.  In 1948 the Civil War was still going on down here.  And even one of the places he put in an application for told him that.  He said, “If I hired you I’d have to fire all the rest I’ve got.”  Because he said, “Northerners know how to work,” and says, “we gotta have so many blacks and blacks don’t know how to work.  They’re slow, they don’t have education.”  He says, “I couldn’t hire you, I’d have to fire everybody else.” 

And he went one place, he put an application in and put it down, “New Jersey” where he lived and the man took the paper and tore it up and says, “Get out of here you damn Yankee!” And Ed started to argue with him, you know.  And he took him out physically and put him out the door, on the street.  Then a cop standing outside there, a patrol cop, and Ed says, “You see what he did?!” And the cop told him to just “move along fella, just move along.”

Listen to the audio of Augusta’s response about why she made the move from the South to the North.

Jeanne Williams was around eighty seven years old at the time of the interview.  She was born in Providence, Rhode Island but has lived in North Carolina for around fifty years and currently resides in Burlington, North Carolina.  She has three children, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Williams attended the University of Rhode Island as an undergraduate majoring in Biology and Mathematics.  She received her graduate degree through a fellowship from North Carolina State University and became the first woman to receive a degree in Experimental Statistic from that program.  She went on to teach statistics at the University of Connecticut and at Elon University, where she was the first woman chairman of the Department of Business Administration and Economics.  Williams was also the first woman chair of the Alamance Health Planning Council and one of the first women on the board of directors for Alamance ElderCare.  She became one of the first women to be ordained as a deacon at the First Christian United Church of Christ in Burlington, where she continues to teach Sunday school.  In her free time she enjoys reading, gardening, and painting antique trays for her family.

On Women in College in the 1940s

When asked about the reaction to the increase of the number of women in college in the 1940s, Jeanne replied:

Well as more women attended at the University of Rhode Island, we had all kinds of athletic opportunities.  By the senior year I was on the senior basketball team and the senior volleyball team.  And believe it or not we had intramurals and intercollegiate games.  The University of Rhode Island played the University of Connecticut, we played New York University, and several.  But it was all at our own expense at that time for travel.  But girls were really beginning to have visions of continuing higher in education.  You realized that it was in 1881 that girls were first allowed into college, thanks to the American Association of University Women.  So I think that girls have the potential and now-a-days they’re going into math and science and engineering and all of the disciplines that maybe they wouldn’t have years ago.

Listen to the audio of Jeanne’s response about women in college in the 1940s.

On Technological Advancements and Service

When asked about technological advancements and service, Jeanne replied:

I guess you might say life is easier in some senses.  But people haven’t learned I don’t think to use the time that they save from saving devices to use it to good advantage in some cases.  Now we had a period in Burlington when oh community service through all the organizations like Kiwanis and Community Council and all of those different organizations were just wonderful.  And I’m sure there are some that are still very active but we don’t hear so much about the service organizations as we used to.  I don’t know whether it’s because younger people, younger adults, are not joining into these organizations because they’re off playing golf or something like that but the community service it’s important.  Now I know a lot of older people who are volunteers at the hospital and go every week and I think that’s wonderful.  I think everybody should have at least one connection to a service organization.

Listen to the audio of Jeanne’s response about technological advancements and service.

On the South

When asked about moving to the South, Jeanne replied:

I think I probably had an adjustment when I first moved to the south as a family to Crammerton.  But everybody was very welcoming and hospitable and I think that we made our contacts immediately through the church and through the neighbors.  We just had good relationships there and the children had friends and that was important.  I think anybody moving around for them it’s important to make contacts through the church, whatever church, because then you have friends that you have something in common with.  And then your children have some friends with the same interests.  It’s just been a very good experience to do that.)

Listen to the audio of Jeanne’s response about moving South.

On Raising Children

When asked about her philosophy concerning child rearing, Jeanne explains:

I suppose that we needed discipline but we also wanted them to learn on their own.  And we encouraged reading from very early ages and responsibility for them to learn as they run along in school, to develop their own responsibilities.  They’ve all done very well, and as I say, have gone to graduate school.

Listen to the audio of Jeanne’s response about raising children.

On Retirement

Jeanne is a retired professor.  When asked about her retirement she replied:

I have time on my hands [laughs].  Like I said, I am teaching a study course and I also teach Sunday school.  I think it’s so important when you quote “retire,” because you don’t really retire, to keep your body moving and to keep your mind moving.  And the people that don’t do this you can see them, should I say, going downhill?

Listen to the audio of Jeanne’s response about retirement.