David Caldwell Jr. - On Community Ties (clip)

Blanche Brown (BB): Did you ever, did you ever skip school?

David Caldwell Jr. (DC): No. No, no, no. That was, I don’t think we ever got into any trouble.

BB: I mean how could you (laughs)

DC: Exactly, no we never really got into any trouble it was, you know, the minute you was-- and not just us, but a lot of the kids, which is not like it is now, but the cops at that time knew everybody, you know, because they were hired out of the community, and if you got in trouble, you know, and I remember so many times of guys begging, “Man, rough me up, don’t call my daddy.” “No, I’m gonna tell your daddy when I see him next time.” You know, “Oh gosh, don’t do that, no please look just let me cut your grass, but don’t tell my folks that you caught me uptown with a cigarette in my mouth, or anything like that.” But that's, you know, that's the way it was. Everybody knew everybody. The teachers lived in the community, you know, Mr. McDougle and all of them stayed right down the street from uptown, everybody knew where they lived. Our, actually, we were on Merritt Mill and then my prior to school walk, first grade, where Crooks Corner is, the parking lot behind it? [Mm hm] It was my grandmother’s house.

BB: Oh wow

DC: And that's where we, you could almost say, grew up. And St. Paul’s Church across the street, you know, four, five years old, we played in the dirt, there was no grass, it was just a sidewalk and dirt, but we played in the dirt, right there on the steps. So you know, it was all, Crooks Corner, you know was, there was tons of stories about it, we used to go to a place called Black Burns there was a fruit, a vegetable market with dirt floors, this long room that you’d walk through.

BB: Oh wow

DC: Across the street from that was the ice company, and then behind that was the coal plant, and I remember, you know, six years old, my uncle used to take us across there with the old burlap bag and we’d pick up the little chunks of coal that they’d burn in the stove to keep warm. My grandfather worked at Fitch Lumber company, so he would, you know, buy slabs of wood, he had an old saw in the back of the yard that had about an eight-inch fan belt attached to the rear tire, or the rear rim, of an old Studebaker and he’d crank that Studebaker up and put it in drive, put a stick on the gas pedal, and it would turn the belt which would turn the old saw blade. And that’s how he cut his wood. Yes.

BB: That’s something

DC: That’s it. And the old Sunoco station is still up there that we used to run behind.