David Caldwell Jr. - On Childhood Community Dynamic (clip)

David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): And during the summertime we’d leave out in the mornings, at 6:30, and we wouldn’t have to be back home until dark.

Blanche Brown (BB): Wow.

DC: And nobody worried. There was about, oh, maybe 12 others, from teenage down to two, three, four years old. [We were] taking care of our baby brothers and sisters, they would all go along with us. And about, believe it or not, four or five dogs. Everybody had a dog and they really looked out for everybody. [It’s] a lot different than it is now.

BB: Yeah

DC: Everybody knew everybody. You knew where they worked, when they got home, when they left, what they did, all those type things. It was a real family community back then.

BB: Yeah, and so all the kids would just hang out together?

DC: Mmhmm.

BB: Just everyone?

DC: Yes

BB: That’s great. Yeah.

DC: We’d get up in the morning—as a matter of fact, that evening, we’d do our itinerary for the next day. [Blanche laughs]. Where do we want to go, what we were going to do. And I remember so many times of setting up to walk, and where we were going, to the swimming hole, or to the apple orchard, and you know, pick your pears, apples, strawberries, peaches, plums.

BB: Oh, wow.

DC: You’d gather up and you’d sit there, find one of the strings, you’d eat them and then you’d find you a nice pine tree, and everybody would curl up there and take a nap–

BB: Oh, that sounds nice.

DC: –after lunch. [Blanche laughs]. And then after that was over, we’d head back home.

BB: Yeah.

DC: And I’m talking about maybe a mile, two miles, to get back home, you know? And that was the big thing.