Freda Andrews - On Mrs. Caldwell and the softball team (clip)
Interviewed on April 16, 2026
Freda Andrews: I grew up, I learned how to swim at Hargraves Center. Everything he has said I did too, because I could go there with my classmates. We were the last class to graduate from Lincoln High School, class of ’65. We just had our 60th class reunion back in September, this past September, and going across the street, I lived at the Hargraves Center. When I say that, the minute I would get up, get dressed, if I didn’t have chores, that’s where I would be. Lucille Caldwell was like the military sergeant. She was like A, B, C. You had to do it her way and she would teach us dances, how to carry ourselves as young people. And this one right here used to hide from her, along with me because she knew all of us and if we were doing anything that was mischievous or out of her range she didn’t approve of, she was there and I remember many days we would see her coming and we would duck in the bushes because we didn’t want her to see us.
Every afternoon we could go to the Hargraves Center and be entertained, playing cards, we could play pool, we could do shuffleboard. The shuffleboard game was the most popular game at that time because you would have a hundred people watching people compete. Of course, we didn’t have the regular-sized shuffle board but we played with what we had and that was always the highlight of the evening. Hundreds of people would be watching us play shuffleboard.
Like I said, I learned part of how to swim at the Hargraves Center. Didn’t get it all, but I recall when we first got our first white life guard, I don’t think he was ready for little Black children [laughter] and we had some issues because he didn’t last very long because I think because he was not used to how we interact in the water and how some of the other children did, he was not ready for us, but he didn’t last very long but we had some great experiences.
Softball, I played with the older generation because we would integrate as far as the teams. We had kids 16 playing with 35–40-year-olds. The girls’ team…we had guys, but we had some famous people. I called them famous because they were to me. We had some young ladies that could hit that soft ball from one end of the ball field all the way to the swimming pool. And the reason this girl, her name was Josephine Farrington and a couple of others, they would hit the ball so far so they didn’t have to run around the bases [laughter] and you could hit a ball and land in the swimming pool. That’s how hard they could hit a ball, but they were some wonderful people in those days.
Miss Caldwell was my mentor. She was an awesome young lady and she taught us many things about how to grow up into a world, a society, that we didn’t know anything about. As I said earlier, we had a softball team. Our colors were red and white. I’ll never forget the day, when I talk about a drill sergeant, one year there was an incident that lives with me right now. Our softball team had an engagement to play out of town. Of course, by my living right across the street from the recreation center, this incident happened. I was standing waiting for us to load the bus and Ms. Caldwell always had to talk. Right before a game, she would call us all together and go over what we should and should not do. Well, this particular day, I remember when she called the meeting, I could hear my mother call me to come home. That’s how we were close. So, I walked out of her meeting and went across the street to my home because my mom had summoned me. Well, when I came back across to get on the bus, Ms. Caldwell said, “You are not going to travel with the team.” It devastated me. I was crushed because I was ready to play that game with the rest of them. And when she told me that, I couldn’t understand why. She said, “Because you did not listen to what I had to say. You walked out of the meeting.” I said, “Well…” I tried to plead my case. It didn’t work. I said, “My mom called me so I left to go see what she wanted.” And she said, “Because of that, you are not traveling with the team.” That’s one incident, but since then we became best of buddies. I forgave her for that incident.
Like I said she was like a drill sergeant. She didn’t mess around. She was a beautiful lady but we were in place every time we saw her. We had to do what was expected of us. She was like a second mother and my experience at Hargraves was just beautiful from the years that I went there. I even helped with the first day care center there. I was like the little teacher there, I thought I was anyway, and my experience growing up there has been a wonderful opportunity. I left Chapel Hill. I went to college, so I kind of lost track of those years that you guys are trying to get information regarding but that was my experience there.
