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Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Working with Homeowners (clip)
Oral History
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Working with Homeowners (clip)
Interviewed by Kathryn Wall on March 11, 2023
Charles Brooks: I mean they would come to my father and grandfather with a set of plans, they would go from there. Sometimes you had to deviate from the plans to save money. But they definitely had to work hand in hand with the owners to find what they had and couldn’t have. They definitely dealt with the homeowners a lot.
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Oral history interview of Jones, Vernelle Brooks conducted by Wall, Kathryn on March 11, 2023 at Marian Cheek Jackson Center, Chapel Hill, NC.
Citation: Marian Cheek Jackson Center, “Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Working with Homeowners (clip),” From the Rock Wall, accessed December 22, 2024, https://fromtherockwall.org/oral-histories/vernelle-brooks-jones-and-charles-brooks-working-with-homeowners.
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Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Young People Going into Construction Today (clip)
Charles Brooks: As far as young people getting into this right now. You don’t really see a lot of people going into the trades, like becoming plumbers, carpenters. For one thing the pay scale, I mean everything, it’s like everyone wants to do IT work, sit at home, got your computer, making a lot of…
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Young People Going into Construction Today (clip)
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Subdivision (clip)
Charles Brooks: For me, I would say a lot of hard work. Back then if you had your own business you had to put a lot of hard work into it and there was a lot to overcome as far as finances if you wanted to go out and do stuff on your own, it was kind of hard to get the financing to do things, so I…
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Vernelle Brooks Jones: I would say that you know they were very persistent in their trade. In spite of the lack of funds and lack of opportunities and all the other things that go around that, they ended up being successful builders. And to this day, the legacy of what they did years ago is still…
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Charles Brooks: My father and grandfather, their pricing would always be a lot lower than if they had gone to a larger contractor. So, a lot of people we did work for, we, my grandfather and my father, saved them a lot of money.
Vernelle Brooks Jones: So, I will just add to that, that unfortunately…
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Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Differences between Contractors and Subcontractors (clip)
Charles Brooks: Subcontractors usually they are not licensed, especially for like my grandfather and my father, they were carpenters. So, like when I say they subbed that means they would go in once the foundation was put in on a house, they would go in and do all of the framing, do all of the…
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Differences between Contractors and Subcontractors (clip)
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Becoming Contractors (clip)
Charles Brooks: My grandfather and my father, they started out as subcontractors and they used to do a lot of work for like JP Co. Force Security Builders. They even did some framing for Tate Construction. In the early 70s my father ended up obtaining his contractor’s license and that is when they…
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Becoming Contractors (clip)
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Segregation (clip)
Vernelle Brooks Jones: I will say, tell a little story about this. My father shared this with us, he always went with his dad wherever he went because he was the one that took up the building aspect of the business. He was browner in complexion, and he said he would go in downtown Chapel Hill to one…
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Segregation (clip)
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Family History (clip)
Vernelle Brooks Jones: Because back, all the way back to my great grandfather who was also a builder. His, he was the first Charles David Brooks. And then my grandaddy was Charles David Brooks II. And onto my dad, Charles David Brooks III and my brother Charles David Brooks IV. And my nephew is…
Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Family History (clip)
