“We had a village out there in Small Farms.” Transcript for A Wonderful Childhood I grew up in the Midtown section of Gary. It was a place called the Small Farms. It was called that for a reason because where I lived there were no sidewalks, no paved streets. I remember as a kid, we […]
family
Green Light to Go Out of Town
“Did you want to take a stand… or was it just an inevitability, ‘Man, we can’t stay here any longer?’” Transcript for Green Light to Go Out of Town It didn’t take a lot of, “Let’s sit down and have a Ward Cleaver moment with Beaver, you know, and tell him what’s going on in […]
I’m 101-Years-Old (Parts 1 and 2)
Parts one and two of a two-part biographical story in which our 101-year-old storyteller remembers part of her family’s journey prior to the Emancipation Proclamation up to her birth in St. Louis, MO, and her move as a young adult to Gary, IN. Part I: But I’m Still Here “The doctor…made a comment, ‘Oh, the […]
Here on Earth to Help Each Other
“…we must do it in a good way so we don’t destroy our earth.” Part two in a two-part story. Transcript for Here on Earth to Help Each Other Always, whenever you spoke of Gary, people said, “Oh, the mill.” Because that’s why people came to Gary. Joe Chapman, when he got to working in […]
But I’m Still Here
“The doctor…made a comment, ‘Oh, the girl doesn’t have a chance.’” This is part one of a two-part story. Transcript for But I’m Still Here This goes way back to before the Emancipation Proclamation. My grandfather’s father was born in Virginia, and he knew about sea plants and what you could eat and what you […]
Still Working on the Revolution
“You’ve given status to people who would ordinarily not have it…thus giving them power and ability to make change.” Rev. Dr. Gregory Jones Edited by Rebecca Werner Transcript for Still Working on the Revolution I moved to Valpo in 1988. I met Walt Reiner maybe a year before. I was running something called the South […]
Thought I Was Stuck
“I thought I was going somewhere else. I was planning on going somewhere else. But I didn’t.” Transcript for I Thought I Was Stuck I didn’t think I was going to be the one left behind, but his name was Elmer, and he was a nice man. I miss him. I was not thinking about […]
Remember Where You Came From
“You can never forget who you are.” Transcript for Remember Where You Came From I say to my grandkids all the time, you can never forget who you are, but you have to remember where you come from. You know what the WPA is? It was a work program that Roosevelt set up for people […]
Hitting Home
“I was starting to grow up and see things the way my parents were seeing them.” Transcript for Hitting Home The school I went to in Detroit was what they say now was integrated. When I came here to Gary, there was an East Pulaski and a West Pulaski. East Pulaski was for my people, […]