Transcription Date: 06/24/04
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- Willie
- Wayne
- (Don’t know what happened here!) Wayne
- Sally
- Interviewer
Side B beginsKay : Which is a good thing because they used to hold lots that use to hold thousands of tires and then the neighborhood, well I can see that the neighborhood is much cleaner since we’ve moved here. And that’s will our yearly tire amnesty days and tire cleanups. We are having else and less tires because there is less and less dumping spots for people and their trash. They are constantly finding new places to dump but those places are decreasing. Wayne : I think there has to be a remedy found again because as the three or us, four or us in this group that are finding themselves in the predicament that a lot of other people are finding themselves in. And again, I think Gwinnett has worked towards equity and tax appraisals and how it’s collected Cobb has and I think maybe Henry or Clayton, I can’t remember. I think one of them has as where again there are previsions made for people who have essentially lived all their lives are pretty consistent to having longevity in their community. Joe : Even if you are in Dekalb County if you are over 7Joe : you don’t pay school taxes and since the school taxes in Atlanta are the big killer for us as far as taxes go but yet there’s no provision for that. For people don’t have to pay that huge amount of money. That’s one that needs to be address, and there is not considering that it’s such a big challenge for them. Interviewer: A couple of last questions. What do you think-maybe we can just go around the circle, what do you think Kirkwood is going to look like in five or 10 years? Or be like? Willie : First of all, it’s hard to say. I think it will look better though. Joe : In a couple of years. Willie : I’ll keep working though. Keep working like I’ve been working for 19 years. Wayne : I don’t think you’ll recognize it. I think if you walked around right now and took pictures of key locations and in five years line them up next to the same direction, the same photo, whatever. I don’t think you’ll recognize it. Kay : Especially if the downtown really changes like we hope it will. We’ll have a nicer--- Wayne : Part of that I think is good and part of that I think it’s kind of a shame. I think there’s a lot of historic character and there’s buildings that are 50 years old. Some of those won’t be here. Some of them aren’t here since we moved in. I can think of the apartments next to the post office. There used to be a nice Victorian there, well it wasn’t nice but it was an old Victorian that was in rough shape but it was salvageable. It’s gone. Bulldozed into history. I think the development pressure it huge and I think it’s only going to get bigger. Bigger and bigger and we are seeing ever little. People who live on corners who have an extra 7500 square feet in their backyard that they can sell off because that’s the minimum. Chop it off, sell it off and the next thing you know you got 2400 square foot house crammed on a lot with a driveway and that’s about it. And I think you are going to see every little corner packed in tight. Kay : And it’s unfortunate but I think it will have a variant business district like the one that Mr. talked about. We’ll have something similar to that in the next five to 10 years. Sally : I think that if we had downtown restaurants were people could walk to them, like changes in Oakhurst or changes in other places where there is more foot traffic. Not people going to the Amoco but people going to restaurants, to coffee shops, to ice-cream…it would be a nice change. Kay : Walking out after dark, didn’t use to be able to do that. Wayne : I was going to say, yeah there are just a couple of things, just a couple of little things that’s kind of interesting that you now can walk out after night and not feel like you have to get in your car to drive down to your neighbors house. (Laughs) Sometimes there were times where also the traffic and the trade that was going on, you felt a little uncomfortable just walking at night. And you don’t feel that way anymore. Kay : I remember when you wouldn’t walk down Warren Street. Wayne : No, you wouldn’t walk down Warren Street and there’s a few others little choice streets you would--- Kay : You won’t even drive down there. Wayne : ---have not gone down at a certain point. I think one of the things that I think people don’t realize that as Kay said fairly early on was when we first moved out here, the first New Years Eve I’ve never so-the gunfire that night on New Years Eve, I have heard gunfire like that ever. And again now depending on the wind pattern and the traffic control pattern, you would think sometimes when you step outside at night, you would think that you are living in Greensboro, or Lexington or Washington, or Madison. It’s an interesting situation now because again I think that speaks to the dramatic and remarkable changes that we’ve seen in the 17 years and it will be interesting again what holds in the next 17. Hopefully we won’t lose that one piece and that is that small town flavor that we have. That intimacy that we have of a close knit community. Joe : I think if the development comes the right way it will build on that character, we’ll really have a great street, a great neighborhood. I think it’s just kind of a piece here and apiece there. Some of it’s going to be great, some of it’s going to be alright. I think it’s going to be--- Wayne : Well, one other thing, I think the other thing was, and I told people this often and again during the years. Was when I lived in Lake Claire, I knew the people on either side of me and sort of the people across from me. And since I’ve lived here, because of whatever the situation was, because we’ve had to become involved and so on. We know 100 fold more people. And not just within my street or within my community but within the area. And that’s-and I don’t know if that would have ever come from the community that I was living in before I moved here. But here I have had the pleasure again of knowing a lot more people and I’m better for it. Kay : And if you get involved you literally know people from one tip of the neighborhood to the other tip. And if someone new moves in you can point out 10 neighbors on their street. There’s really a nice opportunity here where if you do choice to be involve you meet tons of people and there’s always something to do. And hopefully it will continue in that direction. Wayne : I think people loss out if they don’t. They really do. Interviewer: I said two last question but I thought a third. We are talking about development in the neighborhood and changes in the neighborhood. We talked about more development of the downtown business district. All good things, but if we jump back to property taxes look at the property development going in, has a very a positive negative increasing impact on the property taxes. What do you think will happen with the racial and ethnic brew, and the economic diversity of the neighborhood. (Don’t know what happened here!) Wayne : I think it’s going to be interesting because there’s a lot of housing type. We’ve got small apartments, we got large apartments, we got duplexes, we got lofts, we’ve got tons of single-family homes ranging from1800 square feet to 3000 square feet. I think it’s going to be interesting just because of the range structures that are in the neighborhood. I don’t know. Sally : I think there’s a lot people too that don’t intend to leave. Have no plans to go anywhere. Wayne : Well, I was going to say--- Sally : Like the Morrison’s, they are no intention of leaving. A lot of people like that--- Wayne : What I was going to say with like Darrell and his Darrius and so. It’s going to be kind of ironic when Darrius becomes a professional person and he decides to move back into town, something that Joe had said was that you have your generation that was the recipient of desegregation so there is not that conflict that like Ray or Kay or myself had even for myself at the start of the desegregation programs. And I think that you got a situation were people of Sally and Joe’s generation, when they come in again, they don’t have that stigma attach to it. That again there’s a generation, like a Mr. maybe stepdaughter or the Morrison’s children, when they leave they are not coming back. Because there’s a stigma attach to it. But there will be a generation in their, their children will probably maybe outgrow that. And it’s not so much then a neighborhood, Kirkwood, “ You live in Kirkwood?” Or East Lake or Edgewood. The thing is that they will look at it as a community, as something Mr. said, the fact that it sits in a wonderful location. It’s got good people in it, it’s got good housing and it’s close to everything. It’s a great neighborhood to live in. And that maybe there will be a chance at that point for a generation then to come back to it. It’s going to be interesting because it all really plays into reception. And we have a great product and the question is, is how is it sold and how do people view it. What do they feel they’ll get in gain from it. Again, since we don’t have a crystal ball we don’t know if that is going to be. I would certainly believe that. And I also think it’s going to be tremendous. Interviewer: In up note beyond that, we don’t have a crystal ball to look to the future lets look at the past for the last question. Round circle, favorite memory of Kirkwood. Recent memory, which every. Your favorite thing about it if you can’t think of anything. Dorothy? All right, why don’t I start. I’ll tell you my favorite memory about Kirkwood. (Everyone laughs) I ask you question, like I put my students on. First moving into the neighborhood when I first got involved in the Kirkwood garage sale, yard sale. So we are out there with the yard sale, got my stuff out, right. We’re on Sisson, and the bus rides down Sisson. A bus rides down Sisson and it slows in front of our house everything it goes by. And about the third time the guy goes by on the route, he stops the bus in front of our house. The bus drive gets out, comes and buys something from our yard sale. People are on the bus looking around. Interviewer: Nobody else got off other then the bus driver, but he did buy something. He bought a cork screw from our yard sale. (Everyone laughs) That’s my favorite Kirkwood story. Sally : There’s so many, but there’s just little corky things that don’t happen that often but one memory I have is that, and it hasn’t been seen in a long time, I think it might have been eaten. But there use to be the turkey in Kirkwood. Interviewer: I’ve seen it. Sally : You’ve seen it, I have never seen the turkey, but for a long time there used to be a turkey that wander out where, at Delono or somewhere. Wayne : It was at Brigde-dale and Rocky Ford. Sally : I never say a turkey. I though one day that I say the turkey in Betsy Brandon park, we were doing a neighborhood tree planting and Joe and I were in the truck. Steve Stacky big old truck and we were driving around and suddenly from a distance-and I have gotten glasses since then. I see this thing out in the middle of Betsy Brandon park and I started screaming, “It’s the turkey, it’s the turkey.” And the next thing you know the woman stands up (everyone laughs) and so Steve Stracky since then has made fun of me and my turkey and I have gotten glasses since then. And then also we had always heard about the horseman. The guy who rides the horse in Kirkwood. And so one day--- Interviewer: He was in Oakhurst just the other day. (Everyone laughs) Sally : I’ve had discussion where it’s like, “You’ve seen the horseman?” And it’s like, “No.” And so one day I walk out on my porch and I hear, “Click-clop.” And I am like, and he goes, this Blackman wearing a white cowboy hat with chaps on down Kirkwood Way, waving to me, just like a black cowboy. And I’m like…so it’s like an apparition. The horseman of Kirkwood. It’s like where else are you going to see a cowboy riding out in the middle of your neighborhood. That was fun. Interviewer: Memories of Kirkwood. Got one Mr. ? Willie : Well… Joe : I think of the second tire cleanup. For some reason that was fun. We were collecting all those tires. Interviewer: How many did you get? Joe : It was in the excess of 1500. But the pile was. It was 10 feet high. 20 feet wide and 60 feet long. And I remember this--- Wayne : Was that the one at the senior center? Joe : Yeah, we pile them up over there in the parking lot of the senior center, it was the second or third one. Sally : Well he wasn’t here for the first one. Joe : But Tom did the second one. The first one we brought it to Turner. That was the second one. But I remember we had tractor tires, giant Unknown man: four tractor and then we had little dinky go cart, bicycle tires, every--- Unknown man: Lawnmower tires. Joe : ---Every size and shape you can imagine. Unknown man: It was incredible. Joe : And it was so gross because of the water and the mosquitoes but after you got into it, it was fun. We were piling them in the pickup trucks so much that we couldn’t get back to the loading spot to unload them before we found another one. So we are sticking them on the hood and on the roof and--- Sally : That’s a bonding experience, as I call it baptismal by tire juices. Kay : I have a memory that involves Ray, oh why. Interviewer: Share please. Kay : That when we first came to Kirkwood and we say the house that we bought at 146 Street, we thought it was such an interesting house. It was just awful shape, boarded up and just sad looking pathetic thing but we decided to buy it and of course Ray came over and encouraged us telling us what a wonderful house it was and it really us. And that was the night that we were doing the sheetrock or whatever and Ray came over with coffee, which was just wonderful because we needed it badly. We were up all night putting up the plastic and the stuff because the sheet rockers was coming at 7 in the morning so Andy my son and Glen and I were all in there putting stuff up all night. And Ray brought us coffee, it was great. Wayne : Mine was having Jenny call us and say, “I got this strange bottle of wine in my refrigerator. It cost 442 dollars or something like that. And I looked at Kay and I said, “I’ll be up there in just a moment.” (Everyone laughs) And what it was, we had had a burglary and what it was, was the bottle of wine that was missing, or one of the bottles. And the sale price was in French francs. And it happened to be, the person who put it in the refrigerator, who said they were putting it in there just to chill it, was someone that we had working for us, we got our bottle or wine back. We did not get other things back and we had Cedric put in jail. So and he drank. Kay : Is that the one across the street? Sally : No, this guy is totally not here anymore. Wayne : Anyway, it was the fact of this phone call of he had this 442 dollar bottle of wine and she was kind of inquiring what were we paying him as well that he could afford a 442 dollar. Kay : I think he was planning to have a little party at her house. Wayne : Yes, I think so. Kay : He was working at her house as well. So he had stolen our wine and he was going to have a little party at her house with his lady friends when Jenny was not home. Interviewer: 400-dollar bottle of wine. Last chance Mr. , good story for us. No. Well, thank you all for coming, for giving so much of your time. The last bit of paper work is, it said at the beginning that if you don’t want your real name on the transcript of these interviews, you don’t have to put your real name. Kay, this is you. So what this is saying is that…we just have to again, like before you sign the second to last one, the last page you can tear off and have. All you need to do it sign saying that we can use your real name. Or cross no you can’t use my real name and sign too, and we’ll use a different name for you. I have a clipboard if anyone wants it and a pen, somewhere. And if you know of anyone else that you think we could interview that you think would be interested, please give us their name and their phone number if you know it by chance. Kay : I would say Mrs. (inaudible) Jordan would probably be interested. I called her phone number when we were working on the director, but she didn’t answer the phone. Wayne : She is with her daughter now, somebody was saying--- Interviewer: Mrs. Laura? Kay : No, Mrs. Hattie. Sally : I told Shirley and Michael didn’t know. And she said, “Oh my god, that is one thing, if you live on Locust Street everyone knows your business. They know your business for 50 years--- (Background talk about form) Wayne : And they’ll know it for another twenty years. Sally : That group now there they are a riot. Mrs. Waddles will be down there and Snoppy will be down there, “Snoppy!” They all knew Snoppy. Wayne : They were interacting with James apparently. (Background talk about form) Sally : He doesn’t live there does he? Kay : He lives on Dalono, he’s been there a long time, but--- Sally : At least they mow the grass. Interviewer: I’ll take that, thank you ever much. All right thank you all. Take drinks, take sodas. Kay : What was that gentlemen’s name that came by our house one time? Wayne : Tanner, Ray Tanner. I don’t have his phone number. Kay : I think I have it somewhere. Interviewer: Tanner, I don’t recognize his name. HO he is the guy that came by your house but doesn’t live here? Wayne : Right, he owns the insurance company or used to own it. Interviewer: Right and he is the one that is talking about the Good Ole Boys from Kirkwood from the 1950s. Kay : Yeah, probably. Have you talked to him? Interviewer: No, but Kevin, my husband sells insurance primarily to retirees so he is regularly running into people who lived in Kirkwood in the 1950s, and early 1960s. And he ran into someone who’s husband who just passed away was one of the old original Good Ole Boys of Kirkwood and she said nobody is left. To the best of her knowledge. Kay : He was here and he was traveling with his buddy Hank that used to live here. And they were a hoot. And they still, there was one of their buddies who lived-a black fellow who lived on Norwood Street. And he was still alive, although I think he was kind of in that condition where they would come back to visit with him and they would talk. I think I can find his-oh, he had stories. Interviewer: We did have his name, I remember. Kay : Yeah, I do. I will have to look it up. Interviewer: One of the other things, a few people who said that they had good friendly neighbors that been here forever that they knew would be happy to talk to them but probably won’t want to come to a meeting or talk with somebody they didn’t know. So if you think of anyone like that, if you would-it’s not that hard to ask them the questions and just chat. So if you want to just let us know and we’ll pass on tape and tape recorders and little sheets and whatever if you think of anyone that wouldn’t want to come to a meeting or wouldn’t want to be interviewed by a stranger but would be willing for you to interview them. Kay : Have you interviewed Steve Stracky yet? Interviewer: No, because of his schedule. Sally : He is a source of entertainment. Interviewer: We had, he was on the schedule in December but then his schedule or crazy, so we are going to do some Saturday ones coming up we think he can do that. Wayne : Have you gotten Darrell and his sister and his dad to talk? Interviewer: Well here, let me get his…(tape ends) Transcription Notes: Most people are easy to understand. Some confusion on who is who. Mr. is a little to far from microphone at times so he has the most inaudibles. Interview Directory: ~wwwkhp -> transcripts transcripts -> Kirkwood History Project Interview of Lamar Feagans Interview number: 16a interviewer: lr, rm transcription date: 04/06/2004 Transcribed by: ab reviewed and edited by: lf review date: 01/15/2005 Interviewer 1 transcripts -> Interviewer: Cheryl Cowherd transcripts -> Kirkwood History Project Interview of Maebelle Reeves (1) and Shannon Ruff (2) Interview number: khp12 Transcription date: June 8, 2004 Transcribed by: ab interviewer 1 Download 119.75 Kb. Share with your friends:
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