Mary Canty interview recording, 1995 June 23

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Kisha Turner	—start please by you stating your name and when you were born?	0:02
Mary Tindal Canty	My name is Mary L. Tindal Canty, born September 16, 1927.	0:07
Kisha Turner	Okay, and where were you born?	0:15
Mary Tindal Canty	Sumpter, South Carolina.	0:16
Kisha Turner	Sumpter. Okay.	0:17
Mary Tindal Canty	Chandler town, Chandler avenue, or Chandler Street, whichever, I'm not sure. But it's Chandler.	0:20
Kisha Turner	How long have you been in Summerton?	0:28
Mary Tindal Canty	10 years. 10 years the 11th of this month.	0:29
Kisha Turner	Okay. Could you talk to me about any vivid—We could begin by any vivid childhood memories you have?	0:40
Mary Tindal Canty	Okay. As I said, I was born in Sumpter, and as a baby, we moved back to [indistinct 00:00:52], between Silver and Manning to our grandmother's farm, and her name is Rosa Elizabeth Tindal. And we stayed there until I was about six and a half years old. I attend a school there in Silver on the hill. I don't recall the name of the school at the particular time, but it was a Silver school.	0:45
Mary Tindal Canty	Living on the farm, we had many, many things there, I mean my grandmother did. We lived right down the hill from my grandmother. And, most of her children—not most of them, but some of the children lived around her. And she had a horse and buggy, a two-seater. She used to take us to church with it. Later on, our uncle got a car, which was a T-Model Ford I believe it was, I'm not sure, but it was a car, I remember that. And we used to ride, either in the buggy, the wagon, or our uncle's car.	1:28
Mary Tindal Canty	My mother and dad had—my mother and father I should say, had quite a few children, which all passed before. I was the first to live. It was about five of them that passed, five or six that passed. Maybe four passed before me, then a couple after me. So, we had a family of 13, but 7 of us lived to children. But nevertheless, we used to attend Friendship [indistinct 00:02:57] Church in Silver.	2:18
Kisha Turner	What was Friendship like?	3:01
Mary Tindal Canty	Friendship was a small, country church. Frame, [indistinct 00:03:08], frame. Many benches of course, so we had a big stove in there, up front to keep us warm in the wintertime. In the summertime we used to sit out and, they would bring food to church, and serve it on the table there. And my grandmother and my grand-aunt, they were there. They cooked, they [indistinct 00:03:39] tables. So Friendship as a whole, just a small, country church, our church.	3:03
Mary Tindal Canty	And now it's a [indistinct 00:03:52] church. It's the same size, only thing that [indistinct 00:03:57] and where the preacher has these [indistinct 00:04:00].	3:51
Kisha Turner	Did your grandmother own the land that she farmed?	4:03
Mary Tindal Canty	No, I think it was the land that her full parent left her.	4:14
Kisha Turner	Okay.	4:15
Mary Tindal Canty	And I guess it went back to the Tindal's, because we heard her mother's master was attending it.	4:17
Kisha Turner	Okay.	4:27
Mary Tindal Canty	I don't know his first name, but I know he was attending it.	4:28
Kisha Turner	Okay. So, the White family, or the Black Tindal's left it to you?	4:35
Mary Tindal Canty	White Tindal's. It was the—my great-grandmother's, my great-great-grandmother's master was a Tindal.	4:42
Kisha Turner	Okay.	4:50
Mary Tindal Canty	And he was the one that left it to—	4:50
Kisha Turner	To them, to the family.	4:50
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes.	4:50
Kisha Turner	Oh, okay. Okay.	4:50
Mary Tindal Canty	Now however, whenever she died, I don't know what happened.	4:57
Kisha Turner	Okay.	5:00
Mary Tindal Canty	So as far as I know, that's the way it was though.	5:03
Kisha Turner	So, okay, so you're not sure if that land stayed in your family now. Is there-	5:09
Mary Tindal Canty	No, not now.	5:14
Kisha Turner	Not now? Okay. All right. But do you remember your grandmother telling you any stories about her childhood? Did she grow up in Silver?	5:15
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes. Silver, around about Silver. My grandmother never told me anything about it, my dad did.	5:23
Kisha Turner	What did your father tell you?	5:31
Mary Tindal Canty	Okay, my dad told us about his great-grandmother—his great-great-grandmother, the one that was descended from Africa. He said that she was between 13 and 15 years old when [indistinct 00:05:57] and that she had ran away from her master because he used to [indistinct 00:06:03]. And they went and found her and told her that freedom was declared, that she can come back and [indistinct 00:06:11]. But at that particular time, I don't know if he was a Tindal, or whom it was. But, later in life, I do know that her master was a Tindal.	5:31
Mary Tindal Canty	So, that was about the extent though, what he would tell us about. He would tell us stories like, what they used to do, when one would die, and stuff like that. But—	6:20
Kisha Turner	What did they do?	6:44
Mary Tindal Canty	They would have us setting up at home. They would wash the person, they had someone that talks to them, or they would make them in the living room, or the sitting room, whatever you would call it at that time. And they would sit with that dead person all night long, and then they would bury them in little boxes. And they used to haul the dead, and they buried them at Friendship.	6:46
Kisha Turner	Your mother and father both worked your farm on [indistinct 00:07:19]—	7:16
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes.	7:18
Kisha Turner	And you did too, as a child?	7:19
Mary Tindal Canty	No.	7:21
Kisha Turner	No? Okay.	7:21
Mary Tindal Canty	No I didn't. My duty was to look after my brother.	7:23
Kisha Turner	Oh, okay.	7:28
Mary Tindal Canty	During that particular time, the farm part was cotton, corn, and stuff like that. So—and the cattles, of course. Had cows, horses, and stuff.	7:30
Kisha Turner	What do you remember about the school you went to?	7:51
Mary Tindal Canty	Not too much. I remember two rooms, that's all I remember is the two rooms. I had a mean—at least I thought the teacher was mean, because I wasn't used to being disciplined that way. My mother and father used to discipline at that time, wasn't used to other people disciplining. I guess she was a teacher, yeah, but she was doing what she thought was best.	7:54
Kisha Turner	Right.	8:17
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah. It was quite crowded, lot of children. This is in Silver, I went to school in Florida, and I'll tell you about that when we get to that.	8:34
Kisha Turner	Okay. So, I guess we can discuss it. So, you didn't graduate from high school in Silver?	8:43
Mary Tindal Canty	No, no.	8:47
Kisha Turner	How long did you live in Silver?	8:47
Mary Tindal Canty	Until I was about six and a half years old.	8:49
Kisha Turner	Okay, you said. And then from Silver, where did you go?	8:51
Mary Tindal Canty	We were staying in Florida.	9:01
Kisha Turner	Florida?	9:01
Mary Tindal Canty	Mm-hmm.	9:01
Kisha Turner	And what inspired your family to move to Florida?	9:01
Mary Tindal Canty	Conditions, working condition, better ourselves. My parents and some of our older descendants, they had a little squabble with family members [indistinct 00:09:21]. And they were paying a little bit more in Florida than other places here in Carolina. Because daddy worked for 25 cents to 50 cents a day here.	9:04
Kisha Turner	Here. Okay.	9:36
Mary Tindal Canty	And I remember as a child growing up in Silver, many times became real hard because I was born during depression, well it was coming to an end, I think—Who was in as president when I was born, if I'm not mistaken [indistinct 00:10:02]. And the next person that came, I think it was Roosevelt, if I'm not mistaken. And we were supposed to have some of the coldest CC Camps.	9:40
Kisha Turner	What was it called?	10:13
Mary Tindal Canty	CC Camps.	10:13
Kisha Turner	CC Camp?	10:15
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah.	10:16
Kisha Turner	And what—	10:17
Mary Tindal Canty	They would bring food, and they give people jobs, and stuff like that.	10:17
Kisha Turner	Okay.	10:21
Mary Tindal Canty	And they would also serve food and stuff.	10:22
Kisha Turner	This was in Florida?	10:26
Mary Tindal Canty	No, no, no.	10:27
Kisha Turner	This was here?	10:27
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah. This was here.	10:43
Kisha Turner	Okay.	10:43
Mary Tindal Canty	And, it was shortly after that that we went to Florida.	10:43
Kisha Turner	Do you remember WPA, or—	10:44
Mary Tindal Canty	A little bit, I've heard talk [indistinct 00:10:44]. This might have been part of it, I don't know, but what I remember was CC.	10:44
Kisha Turner	Okay. [indistinct 00:10:51].	10:50
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah.	10:50
Kisha Turner	Yeah. Okay, and how did you travel to Florida?	10:56
Mary Tindal Canty	Train.	10:58
Kisha Turner	What was that like?	11:03
Mary Tindal Canty	It was exciting, but I guess I must have slept most of the way, because we left here at night. And I remember—they think that I remember we went to Florida, we went Wednesday. Weirsdale, it was a small place, it's like a village. Most that we had in Weirsdale was schools and churches. And we had one store, a post office, and a clothes store, and a grocery store. There's no, during that particular time, we had our schools, and they had their schools. And when we first moved to Weirsdale, we went to church and to school. We didn't have a building. And we got hand-me-down books, and they were, some, were ragged, torn. But that's all we had. And they were talking about opening our schools around, that's something that we were used to because all grades was in this particular church.	11:04
Kisha Turner	Okay.	12:20
Mary Tindal Canty	It was in [indistinct 00:12:24] First Baptist Church where we stayed at. And that's the church that we joined, after growing up.	12:23
Kisha Turner	Do you remember noticing—or did you feel differently in Florida? How's it different from your life on the farm in Silver?	12:36
Mary Tindal Canty	There was a big difference. When we moved to Florida, I found that some of my own people were a little bit different, some of them treated us a little bit different. At least, I felt like they treated us different.	12:48
Kisha Turner	Black people treated you differently?	13:08
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes, yes. See you said—my mother and father never taught us the difference, or telling us that they was hatred because when we were here, a White lady helped to take care of us. And she used to take us around the fields. And my grandmother, she's a little quiet, and she had blonde hair. Most of my daddy's people had blonde hair. They were either Indians, or they were White. So, we didn't feel the crunch, so to speak, no more than from family members. But, the family members—all families has their ups and downs.	13:10
Mary Tindal Canty	So, when we were in Florida, we still moved to a family member there. And his name was McRobinson, a pastor. And, we were like in a village. He had a big house and we all lived around in small houses around his big house. In shanty-type houses. And when we moved there, my dad and my mom worked in watermelons and orange groves. And by the way, he had many orange groves and stuff like that, so.	13:59
Mary Tindal Canty	Watermelons was another one of the leading things that our farms had to have there. And this was what my dad knows [indistinct 00:14:53] with orange groves, the watermelons. And, in the wintertime when it's very cold and he cut wood—my uncle had a wood yard, they would cut wood and sell the wood to whomever. Most people had stoves [indistinct 00:15:15] stove and chimneys. And that's what we used.	14:42
Kisha Turner	Okay.	15:12
Mary Tindal Canty	And later, as time progressed, so far the school is concerned, we got a school. There was one teacher there, his name [indistinct 00:15:38] Samuel. And through him, we got a school, but a two-room school. And then later on, some other schools added. I think our school went to the eighth grade, and then eventually it went to a high school. And that was after the segregation because this was after my time in school. Then we got all school, this particular school was closed, the White school was closed and they all went to one school. And from that school, on Wednesday we went to some [indistinct 00:16:17] and to Ocala, or Leesburg—no Leesburg was out of the county.	15:23
Mary Tindal Canty	So, we had a school, the high school [indistinct 00:16:18] Staton High School was like going to to some of [indistinct 00:16:20]. And one was in [indistinct 00:16:21], or from that area. Yeah, between [indistinct 00:16:55] and Ocala, yeah.	16:16
Kisha Turner	Okay.	16:57
Mary Tindal Canty	That's where they all had it.	16:59
Kisha Turner	This is kind of back to what you were saying earlier, about being treated differently by Black people in Florida, what was the difference? Were they—	17:02
Mary Tindal Canty	Have you ever gone to a town that you—city, or whatever, and people don't know you?	17:12
Kisha Turner	Okay.	17:20
Mary Tindal Canty	Okay, that sort of thing.	17:21
Kisha Turner	Okay, so it's kind of like an outside—	17:23
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah.	17:23
Kisha Turner	—but you're kind of accepted.	17:23
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah, right.	17:25
Kisha Turner	Okay, I see what you're saying. How long did you live in Florida?	17:26
Mary Tindal Canty	Until I was 20.	17:29
Kisha Turner	Did you feel differently after living there for—	17:36
Mary Tindal Canty	No, no, no, no. After a while, children begin to accept you, and people begin to accept you.	17:38
Kisha Turner	Okay.	17:41
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah. It was that sort of thing.	17:42
Kisha Turner	So what did you do when you graduated, when you passed-	17:48
Mary Tindal Canty	I did not graduate.	17:52
Kisha Turner	Okay.	17:54
Mary Tindal Canty	I went to the 11th grade.	17:54
Kisha Turner	Okay.	17:54
Mary Tindal Canty	Now, my life before, I'm the oldest of seven. And, it was my duty to take care of those children, my mother or my father. And, even though they were being paid a dollar a day when we moved down there, my mother would make more than my daddy, because my mother worked for the Whites. And she would go in the field and work in the mornings, or.	18:07
Kisha Turner	Okay.	18:24
Mary Tindal Canty	And she would make a dollar there. She made a dollar going to their house, and then a dollar going to [indistinct 00:18:38]. And, that's the way it was at that particular time, and I was the caretaker if you want to call it that, of my brothers. I had five brothers. First it was three, and then two more, and then a sister. But nevertheless, I was the caretaker. And, most of the time, I did not get to go to school as other children were going to school, because I had to take care of them. I would have to get up—as I get older, I would have to get up at 5:00 in the morning and get the breakfast ready, and get my brothers off to school, get my mom and dad off to work, my brothers to school, and I would go to school. So, other times, some of them were sick or something, and I would have to do work, so. We don't have children of our own, but I've had my share with my brothers and my sister.	18:33
Kisha Turner	Okay, so when you stopped school in the 11th grade, what did you do?	19:46
Mary Tindal Canty	I came to Carolina.	19:52
Kisha Turner	So you came back to North Carolina?	19:53
Mary Tindal Canty	I came back to South Carolina.	19:55
Kisha Turner	I mean, back to—	19:56
Mary Tindal Canty	[indistinct 00:19:58]. First of all, I went to work.	19:59
Kisha Turner	Okay.	20:00
Mary Tindal Canty	I went to work, I worked in West Palm Beach. And I stayed there for about eight or nine months, and I came back home. Then I came here, and I stayed here for a few months, and I went back again. Last time, I lived 20 miles around [indistinct 00:20:25] and I came, and I got a job at the Silverman Cafe there in Sumpter, and that was ran by a cousin. And that's where I met my husband.	20:00
Kisha Turner	The Silverman Café.	20:34
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes, I met my husband at the Silverman, of course.	20:34
Kisha Turner	Okay. So briefly, what did you do in West Palm Beach, working?	20:41
Mary Tindal Canty	I worked at a restaurant, it was called Plantation Harvest Work. And, I also worked over in Palm Beach, and in Palm Beach we worked at cleaning vegetables and stuff like that for a restaurant. But the plantation was on Black [indistinct 00:21:12] and I worked also for fueling stations, and that was on Black [indistinct 00:21:18].	20:48
Kisha Turner	Oh, really?	21:16
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah.	21:16
Kisha Turner	So was there a lot of Black businesses in Florida?	21:19
Mary Tindal Canty	At that particular time?	21:21
Kisha Turner	Or in that area you were in?	21:24
Mary Tindal Canty	Not that I know about, those—Well, we had friends that lived there and I was the only friend that they had a connection with the Whites.	21:27
Kisha Turner	So, when you were living in-	21:31
Mary Tindal Canty	Weirsdale?	21:31
Kisha Turner	Yeah. How do you spell that?	21:32
Mary Tindal Canty	W-E-I-R-S-D-A-L-E.	21:32
Kisha Turner	Okay, Weirsdale. When you were living in Weirsdale, did your mother sow or did you all purchase your clothes?	21:37
Mary Tindal Canty	Well, my mother sowed alone, knitting my clothes.	21:56
Kisha Turner	Okay. And, did—	22:02
Mary Tindal Canty	Not all of them, but some of them.	22:06
Kisha Turner	Some of them. Okay. Was there a difference in the time, or, just harvesting corn and cotton as opposed to the watermelon and oranges in Florida?	22:08
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah, it was a little bit of difference because, orange groves is a year-round thing. But, the watermelons is seasonal. And, my mother worked in watermelons, like pulling and keeping the watermelons clean or whatever. Whatever, wherever she could get a job, that's what she—We were poor. One time, in Florida I remember, I had one dress. One dress. One pair of shoes. And my shoes was too big for me to—I would put them on when I get to church, pull them off when I leave there.	22:20
Mary Tindal Canty	My dress was made out of a [indistinct 00:23:11], dyed blue. I would come home and wash that dress. That was the dress that I wore to school. But, it was clean every day, because that was one thing that my mother taught was to be. And that's what I would do, come home and wash my dress, wear it back to school the next day. And when I guess we were able, my mama was able to get clothes for me, that was good too. But, I had a lot of hand-me-downs from people who would give me clothes. My mama would cut them off and hand them to me. I'd wear some of my brothers pants if I could get them, didn't have that much [indistinct 00:24:01], and I was [indistinct 00:24:02].	23:07
Kisha Turner	They were bigger than you. And what about food?	24:03
Mary Tindal Canty	Food? We had the basics. We had grits, rice, sometimes beef. Chicken sometimes. Sometimes a little pork. Stuff like that. Beans, peas, and seasonal vegetables.	24:07
Kisha Turner	Your parents bought this, or?	24:30
Mary Tindal Canty	Some of it was bought, some wasn't. And we got a nickel—at that particular time, a penny would get you five [indistinct 00:24:42].	24:34
Kisha Turner	Really?	24:41
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes. A nickel would get you a [indistinct 00:24:47], or six loaves. And we got one of those.	24:41
Kisha Turner	All right. So, I guess we can move on to Sumpter.	24:55
Mary Tindal Canty	Would you like to hear about [indistinct 00:25:07] before we go there?	25:04
Kisha Turner	Okay.	25:04
Mary Tindal Canty	Like to hear about my travel?	25:08
Kisha Turner	Yes, I would.	25:09
Mary Tindal Canty	I used to ride the Greyhound bus. Most of the time when I first came back to Carolina, I would ride the Greyhound bus. [indistinct 00:25:26] because it was easy, we'd get the bus there, in Florida. But before that, let's back up [indistinct 00:25:33].	25:13
Kisha Turner	Okay.	25:32
Mary Tindal Canty	The trains used to go through Florida, I mean, through Weirsdale—not through Florida, but through Weirsdale. And eventually, that was cut out. But before it was cut out, an incident that I had—As I said, I used to ride the bus back and forth, and that was about four times. But nevertheless, one of the times that I was on the bus, this bus driver—I was on my way back to Florida—he was so nice, and he laughed and we talked, and we got in Florida, he told me, he said, I would not let [indistinct 00:26:16].	25:33
Kisha Turner	This was a White man?	26:15
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes. And, I said, oh okay. So, the next time, I was on my way home, and we got into Jacksonville. And Jacksonville, has a very long layover for a bus going to Weirsdale, [indistinct 00:26:42] Weirsdale. We waited, and the bus came in [indistinct 00:26:51]. And, one thing my mother always taught me, I guess I'm jumping back and forth but, this is part of the story—My mother always said to me, keep bus fare, keep train fare, always, when you're traveling. And that always stuck with me, and I did that.	26:24
Mary Tindal Canty	This particular time, the bus came in, and it was five Black people to get on that bus, and the rest was White. So, he let us on, the bus driver, so we got on, and of course we all had the back seat, the first five seats on the bus. And when they finished loading, there was five White people standing up, five White men. So, he came to the back where we were and said to us, let us see your tickets. So we gave him our tickets. I was wrong, there was two of us going to Weirsdale, and one going to Leesburg, and Leesburg is 11 miles from Weirsdale.	27:15
Mary Tindal Canty	And so, he was a soldier, and [indistinct 00:28:11]. But nevertheless, we gave him our ticket, and he said, you all come with me. So we did. And, when we got off the bus, he gave us our ticket back, and we said, why? He said, this bus is not going to Ocala. I said, [indistinct 00:28:34] my fare. He said, well I said, this is not going to Ocala. So, I ran into a bus station, and [indistinct 00:28:40] oh we got our tickets and we had to come back out because it was just a [indistinct 00:28:46] and I'll tell you about that.	28:06
Mary Tindal Canty	So I ran into a bus station, and I said, would you give me my money back? I said, because the bus driver, he put us off the bus and said the bus is not going there, to Ocala. He said, nothing we can do about it, so. And I started crying. I was so mad I didn't know what to do. And this boy, he [indistinct 00:29:08] he laughed at me until [indistinct 00:29:10]. And the more he laughed, the more I cried. But nevertheless. And I told him, I said, let's go get the train. They couldn't give us our money back. They gave me the address where I could write and get my money back.	28:46
Mary Tindal Canty	So, that's what I did. Excuse me. But nevertheless, what this man did, the three people that was going to work for these White people, he told them that they had to stop and give these people our seats. They put those five White women that was standing, the five seats that we had in the back. There was five of us on that bus, and the three that was working for someone, going to work there in Jacksonville somewhere, hired [indistinct 00:30:04] work, they had to stand. And they gave those women our seats. And I was so upset I didn't know what to do. But anyway.	29:22
Mary Tindal Canty	At that particular time, I told you the train was going through Weirsdale at that particular time, well they had cut out the local trains that go on through there, they had on the what they call, the limit train. And they did not stop in small places, they would stop like in Ocala, Leesburg, and they would recognize us by blowing the horn to let us know that they're coming through. So, we went on to the train station and I said to the man, that I would like to get a ticket going to Weirsdale. He said, the train don't stop in Weirsdale. I said, I know—and I was crying, still crying, I said, yes I know that. I said, I live there. I said, but I don't want to have to get off in Ocala and get a bus. I said, because I was just put off the bus over there at the bus station.	30:14
Mary Tindal Canty	And he said, well I don't know. I said, please get me to Weirsdale. I said, because my parents don't have a car to come get me, don't have a phone to call them. We didn't have phones in Weirsdale at that particular time. So he said, okay. He said, I'll have them to stop in Weirsdale and get you off. And I said, thank you. And shortly thereafter the trains stopped going through there, and so was the buses. But nevertheless, I had did it right, I told mama what had happened, and we wrote to the company and they sent my money back, and regret and inconvenience. But, that's one of the incidents that I had as a child, a young person coming up.	31:08
Mary Tindal Canty	The only thing with [indistinct 00:32:02], we lived down there. They wanted—there was one White lady, and excuse me for jumping back and forth, but there was one White lady that my mother worked for, she wanted for me to work for her. She went and bought me an apron, and one of these things that go on the head. And so, mama brought it to me and told me and said she wanted me to be her maid. And I told mama that I wasn't going to wear that. I was very—I respect my mother, I never talked back to her and stuff like that, but that was one time I told mama, I said, [indistinct 00:32:46] now you can go back to work and stuff. I think I went up there once or twice, and after that, I told mama, I said I can't do that. And that's when I started coming here, and—	31:59
Mary Tindal Canty	But, that's the way it was at that particular time. But nevertheless. This is about all of the incidents that I can remember happening so far as we were concerned. We know we didn't go to the White church, we didn't go to the White school, we didn't have buses, we walked. And, the longest mileage that we walked was five miles one way. And, we would get there at morning, get to school on time. We didn't get buses until I think after I was [indistinct 00:33:44].	32:57
Kisha Turner	Okay. All right. Do you remember hearing about any other incidents with violence or intimidating used by White people to kind of keep—	33:51
Mary Tindal Canty	Well, my dad told me a story. My dad used to go down in the lower part of Florida selling watermelons, walking back. And, he was telling us about an incident that happened to him. They chased my dad. And, he was [indistinct 00:34:28] at the truck. Daddy just helped them load the load, and got away from them. Now, I don't remember the place in Florida that this happened.	34:01
Kisha Turner	Do you know why they were chasing him?	34:38
Mary Tindal Canty	I don't remember the exact story, but he was in a small place selling watermelons when this happened. I guess he must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, something to that effect. But we did have a place in Florida, and this was not too far from Weirsdale, called Oxford, Florida. When the train would come through that particular town, they would pull the shades down on the train. They was shooting where the Black people was, because they say we shoot at people, and we shoot at the trains.	34:41
Kisha Turner	Okay. And do you remember at any other—I don't know, was there any other occasion, just in everyday, existing that you interacted with White—	35:25
Mary Tindal Canty	With the White?	35:33
Kisha Turner	Mm-hmm.	35:35
Mary Tindal Canty	No, no more than working for them or something like that. But most of the Whites that I was around and worked for, naturally, they want to treat you nice in their homes or whatever. Because, I babysit once, for one of the lady's daughter, and she had children. And of course she had children because I was babysitting. But nevertheless, the little child, she was about six years old, five or six years old, and she looked at me and she said, you're a nigger. And I said, you know what a nigger is? And she said, yeah you're a nigger. I said, no. I said, I'm a Negro, yes. I said, but I'm not a nigger. I said, anybody think you're a nigger, [indistinct 00:36:33] I know what things they are not. Because, my mother always says, niggers can be anybody. And I don't consider myself a nigger. I always considered myself a Negro, or a Black person. That's [indistinct 00:36:54].	35:36
Kisha Turner	Okay. You mentioned that your father to tell you about his grandmother? Or—	36:56
Mary Tindal Canty	His great-grandmother?	37:01
Kisha Turner	His great-grandmother—	37:03
Mary Tindal Canty	Okay.	37:04
Kisha Turner	—descended from Africa?	37:05
Mary Tindal Canty	Mm-hmm. A direct descendant.	37:05
Kisha Turner	Direct descendant from Africa?	37:05
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes.	37:06
Kisha Turner	Do you remember any—Did he ever talk about any traditions or anything like that, that she—	37:11
Mary Tindal Canty	We don't know, he never talked about that. And I don't suppose that she knew too much, I mean, said too much about the tradition because she was [indistinct 00:37:27] talking about things that, and so—He never told us about anything like that.	37:16
Kisha Turner	Okay.	37:31
Mary Tindal Canty	And by the way, I met daddy's great-great-grandmother. Wait a minute—his great-grandmother, and then his grandmother on that side of the family. And then on his mother's side of the family, I met his grandmother and his granddaddy, but I never met my granddaddy or my grandmother. I never my grandparent on my mother's side [indistinct 00:38:16]. And, we were just not acquainted with my people on my mother's side as I was with my dad, because my dad's side of the family grew up on the farm and stuff like that.	37:34
Mary Tindal Canty	So, I never knew my mother's people like I—and I still don't know all of my people, and there are a lot of them here in this area that I hear about now. And a lot of my daddy's people I do not know.	38:35
Kisha Turner	Do you remember—does anything stick in your mind about those, your great great grands?	38:50
Mary Tindal Canty	No more than some of them went for White, or some part of them.	38:59
Kisha Turner	They did—they passed?	39:05
Mary Tindal Canty	In fact, my dad was supposed to go to Washington instead of Florida. And he was going to go up and work for one of his grand-uncles. And he was [indistinct 00:39:24]. And he had a restaurant on Georgia Avenue, in Washington. And told my daddy he could come work for him, but you are to never let anybody know that we are related, you're never to use the front door, you always use the back door.	39:09
Mary Tindal Canty	So daddy came [indistinct 00:39:54] to his grand-uncle [indistinct 00:39:54]. Uncle Max. In fact, after I got married, I made sure I would find this particular place, and it was arsoned. But I don't know when.	39:37
Kisha Turner	Okay. That's interesting.	39:54
Mary Tindal Canty	[indistinct 00:40:17].	39:54
Kisha Turner	Okay. I guess we can move up to the time where you were working the Silverman Café, in Sumpter?	40:21
Mary Tindal Canty	Sumpter.	40:28
Kisha Turner	And you had moved to Sumpter at this point?	40:29
Mary Tindal Canty	[indistinct 00:40:32].	40:31
Kisha Turner	Okay.	40:31
Mary Tindal Canty	What I would do, I moved to Silver to my mother's sister, and I would live with her on the weekend, and I would move with a grand-uncle on my mother's in Sumpter during the week. And I would work at the Silverman Café. And on the weekends I would come back to my aunt here in Silver, and my husband would do the transportation, we were courting at that particular time.	40:32
Kisha Turner	Okay. What was that like?	41:08
Mary Tindal Canty	Oh, courting him? It was nice. I met him in July, in 1948. And, when I first met John—John, he had a car of course. And, my cousins and I were on our way to the store for our Aunt May, and we were by Friendship, walking to the store. And we saw this car coming, and he dust us up. And I said, who is that? And my cousin said, that's John Canty. And he had a couple of women. (Turner laughs) Flying.	41:09
Mary Tindal Canty	So, that was on a Friday or something, I'm not sure of the date. But nevertheless, that Sunday we were at church, and a cousin of mine said, let's go to Sumpter. And I was going to Sumpter anyway, but I said, okay.	41:54
Mary Tindal Canty	She said, let's get John Canty to take us. And I said, okay. So she went and asked John. And John take she, another cousin of mine, and myself, John said, well, he couldn't get off, he couldn't make it or something. Backing up a little bit, I came down to Sumpter on that Saturday with the fella that liked me, well he says he liked me, I [indistinct 00:42:51] just somebody. But nevertheless, that's when I really met John. And John had asked me about if he could come to see me, and I told him, I said, well maybe, or something to that effect. But on that Sunday is when he took us to Sumpter, and he became my boyfriend.	42:20
Kisha Turner	Okay.	43:19
Mary Tindal Canty	We courted from July, I believe, maybe June or July, until October we married, October.	43:22
Kisha Turner	You were about 20?	43:32
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah, I was 22. But I was 21 at that time.	43:33
Kisha Turner	Okay.	43:39
Mary Tindal Canty	But I was 21 on September 16th. We got married October 16th. And, we went to our minister, I was [indistinct 00:43:51] at Friendship, because when I got to Florida I joined Friendship on March 10th. And, of course I was a Baptist in Florida, but that's the church my family attended. And so, and John [indistinct 00:44:12], so the minister at that particular time [indistinct 00:44:14] Friendship.	43:41
Kisha Turner	Okay. And how long did you all live here for?	44:12
Mary Tindal Canty	Here? From October to December, John went to Washington and I went to Florida, back to my family. Stayed here until John got a job in south Florida, and that was in January.	44:22
Kisha Turner	So you decided that you would stay at home until he found where—	44:40
Mary Tindal Canty	I stayed with my parents.	44:42
Kisha Turner	Okay. And so how long was it before you moved to Washington to join Mr. Canty?	44:48
Mary Tindal Canty	January. [indistinct 00:44:54].	44:50
Kisha Turner	Okay. And what were your impressions of Washington?	44:56
Mary Tindal Canty	All right. John said, I thought—when I got off the train, John said, the [indistinct 00:45:07] Union Station. Have you ever been to-	44:58
Kisha Turner	Mm-hmm.	45:02
Mary Tindal Canty	Okay, John thought—John would tell people that I thought that was Washington D.C. Being from a small town.	45:09
Kisha Turner	Right. So, a big city?	45:11
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah. I really liked Washington. At that particular time, Washington was so nice. [indistinct 00:45:33] people didn't lock their doors. Some would come to your house, knock on your door [indistinct 00:45:42]. You could walk the street at night, nobody would bother you, people would protect you, stuff like this.	45:22
Kisha Turner	What part of town did you like more?	45:52
Mary Tindal Canty	[indistinct 00:45:54] when John said, where we live at 1240 G street [indistinct 00:46:07]. And we joined—we had a room in this house with this lady, and we stayed there for—it was, maybe a little bit longer, I'm not sure, but it wasn't a year. Well we got an apartment, and from—this apartment, yeah, we lived at 633 Elmwood street, right around the corner from where his church was. And so, you'd join, I joined [indistinct 00:46:46] then we got another apartment. Because every time I saw an apartment that I liked [indistinct 00:46:52] this one. But nevertheless, John [indistinct 00:47:00] a second apartment we had.	45:58
Kisha Turner	Do you remember what rent was?	47:02
Mary Tindal Canty	Rent?	47:03
Kisha Turner	That [indistinct 00:47:11]—	47:10
Mary Tindal Canty	I think the first one was, might have been less than $100. Then the next one might have been—	47:10

Kisha Turner	What did you do? I know when you were younger, you took care of your brother, so you probably didn't have much time. But as you got older, what kinds of things did you do for fun? Or recreational or social type?	0:03
Mary Tindal Canty	I did a little bowling and stuff like that with some people and stuff. When we first moved to Washington, my biggest goal was to find a job. We'd go to the beaches and stuff, but that was about it. Only sometimes before really becoming a Christian, go to cabarets, dancing, parties and stuff like that too. But my goal was to find a job. Jobs for women were a little bit easier then. The first job that I got in Washington was a job working in a restaurant. One day, I went out walking and our neighbors were out and he walked up to me and he said, "Hi little girl." And I said, "Hi," because I was from the country and I spoke to anybody. And women used to look at you real funny, but the men you know, would always speak.	0:19
Mary Tindal Canty	And by the way, I never wore clothes and shoes until I came to Washington. At least I had one pair of clothes and shoes as a teenager and I couldn't walk in them things because I was used to wearing things just like what I got on now. But they wasn't made this way, just somebody cross-stitched. My childhood shoes of course had holes in them, but I didn't wear them only on Sunday or very special something. Didn't get that holey, but nevertheless.	1:30
Mary Tindal Canty	I got these shoes and had probably been wearing them because I got corns between my toes. He says, "Hi little girl." Said, "What are you doing? Are you looking to get a job?" And I said, "Yes, sir. I sure am." He said, "I know where you can get a job. Why don't you come, go with me?" I said, "Sure!" And I looked at this man, we walked from 13th and G Street—Well, I had gone down on—I mean, yeah. I walked from 13th and G. I met this man on 8th Street and he walked from there to 22nd or 23rd Street, northwest. And he went in and he told this man, said—His name was Mr. Butler, and this man that I met, his name was Johnny Gray. He was the nicest person. Johnny take me to this store, he said, "Mr. Butler," said, "This is my cousin and she's from down home and she needs a job. Can you pay her to help?" And he said, "Sure." Said, "You can start tomorrow," and I said thank you.	2:09
Mary Tindal Canty	And I went back home, I walked back home and told them I had a job. And I think Johnny walked me back home and Johnny met John and we became friends. Johnny, John, and I. And he would come, he would pick us, whatever. But as I said, he was just a nice person and he remained our friend until he died.	3:04
Mary Tindal Canty	But nonetheless, I got this job working in this café and Mr. Butler say, "Mary, I know Johnny is not your cousin." He says, then he asked me where I was from and I told him the truth. I said, "I need the job and he said that he'd bring me over here. You asked him for a job, gave it to me and I have a place to work now." And he was a nice man. I walked from 3rd, 23rd and I, it was. And I worked there until I found another job.	3:42
Mary Tindal Canty	The next job that I found, this guy was going around selling jobs.	4:31
Kisha Turner	Selling jobs?	4:37
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes, they were selling jobs. You know, you would go to the employment office and whatever, and they had people there and they said, "Well, I know where you can buy a job." You'd get this job and they would charge you X number of dollars. So I said, "Okay." So, this next place that I worked was called Naismith's Five and Dime. It would be the first time that I worked for a White company after moving to Washington.	4:38
Mary Tindal Canty	But anyway, I was working—So, I got this job working at Naismith's Five and Dime, and this man that I was supposed to be paying for the job, he was a drunk and I did not know. So he got into trouble, and so I never did finish paying him. I paid him one time. And I worked for Naismith's Five and Dime. And it was segregated; I worked in mezzanine. First, I worked in the stand up place there. They had a stand up counter for Black people. The Black and White would eat there, but Black people especially would eat there. We could not sit and they had what they called a mezzanine and then they had a sit down place on the first floor, and the Black people could only eat at the pizza stand and this other place that I worked.	5:10
Mary Tindal Canty	But eventually I started working in the mezzanine. I also worked downstairs, but anyway, we could not eat downstairs. We couldn't eat upstairs, but we could go to the locker room. Get our food and go to the locker room. Our locker room wasn't as big as that dining area there, and they had stools. You know, these long benches that you could sit on and eat. That's where you locked the clothes and that's where you would eat.	6:16
Mary Tindal Canty	In this particular time, Martin King was coming on the scene. Mr. Martin Luther King, but just before this happened, I said to him, my boss, I said, "I am tired of going upstairs, eating in that locker room." I said, "Why can't we come down here and eat and these folks can stand up and eat or something." He said, "Well, the employees are not allowed to do that." And I said, "Don, can't I go someplace besides going up there?" I said, "No wind in the place." And he said, "Well, Mary. You know—" His name was Walsh. And he said, "You know, the rules and regulations." I said, "Well, I'm just getting tired of doing this." So he said, "Well, I'm not sorry."	6:52
Mary Tindal Canty	Well, that bothered me a great deal, but nevertheless I said, "Well I need a job." So one day he came and he said, "Mary, you don't have to go upstairs to eat anymore. They changed their policy just before King and those came into Washington." Said, "You don't have to do that anymore. You can go any place in the store and eat whenever you want to." I said, "Well, thank you."	7:51
Mary Tindal Canty	Shortly after that, my cousin, my aunt's son that I came to live with here in Carolina, he came to Washington and he was staying with us. We had, by this time, begun buying our home there in Washington. And please ask me again about this buying a home and stuff.	8:26
Kisha Turner	Okay.	8:49
Mary Tindal Canty	So, he wanted to find a job and I was taking him around to try to find him a job, and it was still a little bit hard for men to get a job than it was for women. So I took him over to George Washington University Hospital to get a job, and I put in an application too. And they hired me instead of him, but anyway, he did get another job. And I was being paid less than $1 an hour at the diner. I was making 80 or 85 cents. I left that job and went to GW, and I was paid 91 cents per hour. Sounds strange now.	8:50
Mary Tindal Canty	And so you can imagine working at the café, I was making less than 80, less than 70 cents an hour. But $5 would get you enough food and medicine for almost two weeks.	9:53
Kisha Turner	That's strange too.	10:14
Mary Tindal Canty	You see?	10:19
Kisha Turner	Yeah, buy a carton of orange juice for $5.	10:19
Mary Tindal Canty	Right. Now, you almost have to pay that for some orange juice and stuff. And by the way, coming from Florida, never had to buy orange juice, never had to buy juice. The flowers that we had, we take them for granted. Tropical flowers that they sell up here, can't think of the name, but they sell them around Christmas time. They have the red leaves and the white leaves.	10:21
Kisha Turner	The Poinsettias?	10:55
Mary Tindal Canty	Poinsettias. We never, those things grew wild.	10:56
Kisha Turner	Really?	11:02
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah, around the orange groves. Guavas and stuff like that, tropical stuff. We never worried about paying here and had to buy all this stuff. That was a shock to my system, but nevertheless, $5 would buy you a bag, or two bags, of groceries. And then now you can't hardly get two bags for $100 almost. You know?	11:02
Mary Tindal Canty	Nevertheless, I went to GW and I started working there. And it was [indistinct 00:11:39].	11:33
Kisha Turner	What did you do at GW?	11:38
Mary Tindal Canty	At first, I was a nurse's aide, working on 5C. And of course I had to go through a training period, and I went through that. Hey. I was assigned to the worst patients, all my patients were cancer patients. I was assigned to the worst ones.	11:40
Mary Tindal Canty	I had one group—Well, three I remember distinctly. They had cancer, metastatic cancer and one is Black, two is Black and—No, I had four. Two was Black and two was White. And the Black lady's body, her name was [indistinct 00:12:36]. I can't forget her name. She was cut everywhere on her body. She had every type of cancer, you know. After it's metastasized it just come all over the body. They would operate on her and the last operation she had, she died.	11:57
Mary Tindal Canty	That patient died over the night I came to work there. I had two [indistinct 00:12:36] taking them to the morgue. Put her in the trough, I call it. You know, into the refrigerator and I had to tag her particular door, drawer that she was in. But I did it.	12:31
Mary Tindal Canty	The next patient's name was Mr. Stewart and his body, too, was the same way. But before he died, they eat something like a sandwich and he [indistinct 00:13:50] and as fast as he could eat. It would go in white and come up black. And he died like a dog. His tongue came off inside his mouth. He was an undertaker. The father of the sons who owned the undertaker. Anyways, he died.	12:31
Mary Tindal Canty	I had two Whites, one of them [indistinct 00:14:19] she had a tumor on the left side of her head by her ear. And only thing she could say was "Nana." And I don't remember her name; she had a funny name. And she would always try to show you something in the room, but I could not see it.	14:13
Mary Tindal Canty	The next one that I had, she had holes in her stomach where, in her body where the cancer just ate her up and she could take no medication. The only thing that they could give her was brandy. That was the only thing that would ease her pain. They, you know, could give them morphine and stuff, but she would drink brandy all the time. Of course the doctors [indistinct 00:15:06], but this is one of the things that she had. She was in terrible pain.	14:32
Mary Tindal Canty	So I worked on that floor and the nurse that was in charge, she was in the Army of the White soldiers. She was a very stern nurse. She [indistinct 00:15:33]. Because they would assign, sometimes I would be back, you know, working with your own people sometimes they can give you a harder time than the White person could, or would. And I had some people who would treat me kind of mean. Give me duties because I was new, you know. And I thought I tried to do anything that I was told to do because those people were older and I figured they, you know, needed help doing it. I would do what she would tell me, because I was required to do.	14:39
Mary Tindal Canty	But I mean, it helped me in a sense, but in a sense it did not because my feelings was hurt. But in the end, it all turned out very nice. So I was transferred to the OR, operating room. And my job was then, I was still the nurse's aide. Then I had to go through some more training. I also went back to school, but that's another story. I don't want to tell you all about that. While I was doing what was prepping. I would go down and prep them for surgery, shave them, or whatever. Because if they have to have a craniotomy then the doctor would shave their heads and stuff like that, but I could shave it from the neck down. And that's what I did. I was trained for that.	15:54
Mary Tindal Canty	I was also trained how to put up packs for sterilization, instruments, learned the instruments and they had to sterilize them. We had what you call the order plate. We had all the instrument washing and take the instruments and strain them, and order plate them. We had to do minor packs and major packs for surgery. We also had to do sutures, and sutures at that particular time—Are you familiar with this? Sutures and stuff like that?	17:26
Kisha Turner	Yeah.	18:01
Mary Tindal Canty	Okay, all right. At that particular time, sutures came in tubes. We had [indistinct 00:18:32] and we had a silk were kind of used a lot in all the kinds of sutures and they'd come in packs at that particular time. Most of our sutures came in glass tubes, and we had to see that they were sterilized. And we had to—I told you about the packs. We had to do all the packs and stuff like that. The sponges that you use on the patient, we had to clean the sponges. We had to see that they were sterilized and always an even number that we would put in, no less, no more.	18:23
Mary Tindal Canty	The way that the sponges, all the sponges had a little Black thread and this was to show if a sponge was left in, they could do an x-ray of you and it would show up. Okay? So, and all the tapes, they had a little Black thing on the corner of it and that would show if it had to be left in you, then it would show if they did an x-ray. Sometimes, sponges got left in the patient. And we had to count those sponges after surgery, or before the surgery ends. All the sponges had to be accounted for.	19:01
Mary Tindal Canty	But this was after. Nevertheless, I had to learn all of the basics and then I had to go through a training period. Eventually after I had training, I became a technician in that particularly hospital. Not in another hospital, but that particular hospital. Then I started working directly with the doctors and nurses in the operating room. At first, I did circulation, meaning that I had to set rooms up, open up the surgery, get the doctors in there, get the doctors would scrub and come in. The nurses had to put gowns on them, they would secure all the gowns, but I had to see that everything in the room was kept orderly. Had to keep the records of when surgery started, when it ended, the sponge that was used, how many sponges were used. All that had to be in that record. The doctors would put in the operation and the diagnosis.	19:51
Mary Tindal Canty	I had to see that everything was done. The nurse and I would set the room up, and everything that she would think that they would need, she tried to get it there, but most of the stuff I had to know what it was that they needed. I had to get it. Had to keep order in the room, [indistinct 00:21:40] and all this stuff. I worked with the OBGYN doctors at first, and doing DNCs and stuff like this. We used to have people come in and they didn't like me to touch them.	21:10
Mary Tindal Canty	We had one particular patient, she called me a Black bitch, I believe it was. And I said to myself, "You going to sleep. You just might not wake up." But nonetheless, she did. But that's very bad.	21:55
Kisha Turner	Did that happen often?	22:13
Mary Tindal Canty	No, it didn't happen often because some of the doctors, you know, they—Some doctors was prejudiced, too. And this particular doctor didn't say anything. I just looked at the patient and I mean, he was putting them to sleep, you know? The doctor didn't say anything. Just looked at me and I looked at him, and I didn't say anything. He didn't say anything.	22:19
Mary Tindal Canty	But nevertheless, I said that too will pass, and it did. So, I started working then in orthopedics. I had to learn that, and of course we had training for that. Then I worked in Monroe delivery room. In general surgery. When I left there, I was making $2, $3, three something an hour. Every time I moved from one department, or from one thing to another, I got a raise.	22:47
Kisha Turner	Okay, so promotion?	23:38
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes, well call it a raise or promotion. I got that promotion, but nevertheless I was making about $3, $4 an hour or something like that. Then I went back to school. I went to, it wasn't a high school, but a nursing school.	23:39
Kisha Turner	When was this?	23:59
Mary Tindal Canty	This was in the '50s, '60s. Mm-hmm, and as I told you, we had started buying a home and then we had a child to come to live with us. And I figured, well, the child needed an education. I'm sorry about that. Now, I'm sorry about it, but I was glad at the time that we sent that child to school and that's what we did. But the Lord worked with him in mysterious ways because when I left GW, I went to another job. Wasn't making more, just a few cents more, but the atmosphere was better. I got better raise, among most things. So, when I left there, I was making about $5 or $6 an hour.	24:10
Kisha Turner	Where were you?	25:06
Mary Tindal Canty	It's Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Springs.	25:07
Kisha Turner	Okay.	25:07
Mary Tindal Canty	And I worked in all departments, so far as I'm the surgical head of that. I worked in OBGYN, delivery, I worked at burnouts in the OR. I could live and work there. Then I worked in outpatient department and I worked in emergency room. So, if I get a burn out too bad, if I decide I want to leave, I retired. Went back on the job and got a raise. They were very nice.	25:22
Mary Tindal Canty	You remember when Wallace got shot? Governor Wallace?	26:01
Kisha Turner	Mm-hmm.	26:06
Mary Tindal Canty	Well, I was working there then and I was on night call at the time. When he first got—I was supposed to be going in that night, and they called me and told me that Governor Wallace had been shot and that I wouldn't have to come in because they didn't want people changing shifts while working on him. And I stayed home and they paid me the whole time that he was there. Just before he left, I went back to work. When he was out of danger and stuff like that, I went back to work, but for the time that he was come critical, whatever, I stayed home and got paid.	26:06
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah, and during that particular time, while he was in hospital, everybody was shaked down. Everybody was checked out for everything. Going through your purse, whatever. Anything that you brought in there, they had to come through a security. So you know, I found Holy Cross Hospital was really a blessing to me and that's where I retired.	26:43
Kisha Turner	Okay. So, back up a little to buying your home?	27:26
Mary Tindal Canty	Okay, when we bought our home, we bought it in the White section. We lived in the White section, and when we first moved in that particular area, the street was lit up like neon sign with for sale, houses for sale. Of course, our nextdoor neighbor, when we first moved in there, they were Jewish on one side and the other side, I don't know what nationality they were. But they stayed there for a long time, the house where the Jewish people, they never moved. They stayed there until he died and she was going to be living in a nursing home or Washington.	27:28
Mary Tindal Canty	Nevertheless, when we first moved in there, those White people that was on our street and was neighbors, they visit one another. I would come home from work and they would be sitting on my step, and some of them was kind of heavy and they would have their dress spread all over my step. What I would do, I would just step right over, go in my door and close the door.	28:19
Kisha Turner	Was this a Row house?	28:47
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah, they were Row houses and this is what they would do. This lady that lived on one side, she got a little dog and guess what she named that dog? Blackie. And every time I'd go in the yard, she'd, "Come on Blackie." And this is what she would do, she went crazy. I didn't say a thing to her. I would speak to her and treat her just as nice, but she kind of lost her mind.	28:52
Mary Tindal Canty	But the people, the Jewish couple, she was a little bit prejudiced, too. But he got her straight. He told her, he said—One day she said something and he told her off right in my presence. And he was always as nice as could be to us, and she became very nice to us in the end. She just, well she depended on us, you know? And when he finally died, then she kind of went off. When people have been together for so long, it's kind of bad on them. But [indistinct 00:30:04] that he cared about her. And her niece wanted us to look out for him, and he did, but I didn't quit my job. So they got people to move in there, to take care of her.	29:20
Mary Tindal Canty	But I just wanted to tell you, when we bought our house this is what happened.	30:18
Kisha Turner	Now, why did you all choose to live in this area?	30:26
Mary Tindal Canty	Well, I guess because this was home. Beside—	30:29
Kisha Turner	What? I'm sorry, the neighborhood you moved into in Washington, why did you decide to move to that neighborhood?	30:38
Mary Tindal Canty	Oh, because we liked the house. Yeah, we liked the house. It was—We were looking for a house and so we found this house, and we liked it, so we-	30:43
Kisha Turner	Okay, what part of town? What section?	30:56
Mary Tindal Canty	This was in the northeast section.	30:58
Kisha Turner	Still in northeast?	31:00
Mary Tindal Canty	Yeah, but it was, we were living in the unit block of Credence Street, right off North Capital. See, we lived in the northeast section and right across the street was Northwest. You know where Soldier's Home is?	31:03
Kisha Turner	No.	31:22
Mary Tindal Canty	Okay, you're not familiar with that, all the Soldier's Home. Providence Hospital, those, we lived in that section. Not too far from District Line.	31:22
Kisha Turner	Okay, all right. And so you retired from the hospital in Silver Spring.	31:37
Mary Tindal Canty	Mm-hmm, in '84.	31:44
Kisha Turner	In '84? And you all moved back?	31:48
Mary Tindal Canty	In '85. I retired and I went back to work just working part time, because I thought it was going to take me an awful long time to get packed, and get the house, and all that to sell it and all that stuff. But then when I got everything done, I went back to work and worked for a little while, until my husband retired.	31:50
Kisha Turner	And what changes did you see in the area when you moved back?	32:12
Mary Tindal Canty	Here?	32:16
Kisha Turner	Mm-hmm.	32:16
Mary Tindal Canty	Oh, gosh. There were so many changes, honey. We felt so out of place.	32:17
Kisha Turner	Did you?	32:22
Mary Tindal Canty	And felt like outsiders, even with all of our family members here. Of course I didn't know my family members, but the south had changed greatly. As a young person, coming back to Florida here, it seems like everybody was so together, the Black people. I didn't have too much dealing with the White anyway. The Black people they seemed like they were so much together.	32:23
Mary Tindal Canty	Everybody, you know, just doing for everybody. And then when we moved back this time, things had changed. Meaning that you know, everybody had jobs, they had their own transportation. They didn't depend on their neighbors like we used to depend on one another. Wasn't as friendly as we were years ago. The progress changes things.	32:59
Kisha Turner	Mm-hmm.	33:29
Mary Tindal Canty	It changes people because they're keeping up with the times. You can imagine, we were lonesome. We went to Sumter because, to church for a while and that's a Jehovah. They call it Jehovah. It was the closest to what were used to in services in Washington. And it still is closest to what we're used to in Washington, but there have been a great change. I guess because we've become involved here. When we first moved here, we didn't have any place to go or see, you know? And people would see you, they'll speak to you, you know? But they keep going.	33:46
Mary Tindal Canty	Didn't have any visitors, hardly, unless they're our friends that come down from Washington, whatever. And we were going there quite frequently when we first moved down here. They would come down here.	34:33
Kisha Turner	Oh, you're going back up to DC?	34:48
Mary Tindal Canty	Yes, yes. They would come down and visit us and call us. They were like our family, but anyway, as we became more involved down here, you don't visit Washington as much. Our friends that's much older, we [indistinct 00:35:15] two or three times a year. Four times a year, you know. Anyhow, it was [indistinct 00:35:30].	34:49
Mary Tindal Canty	But then another thing that we used was transportation. Stores, we take things for granted. Hospitals, if something would happen. I didn't have to worry about, "Can you take care of me?" Because we had doctors there that we knew, hospitals, we could go to whatever hospital we wanted to. Whatever store we wanted to, get on the bus, get a cab. We didn't want to drive. Go on about your business. But we came here, no buses, no cabs, stores were far and in between. Had to drive and we get us a little car. We never had a choice of it. You have a choice of doctors, but they far and in between sometimes. Anyway, we have nice doctors, our doctors and some. Then you'd get doctor [indistinct 00:36:11].	35:07
Kisha Turner	Okay. This is just a brief, short question. When you did go back to nursing school, how long did you stay?	36:10
Mary Tindal Canty	About a year. The one thing that was helpful to me, we always had in-service in training. That's something that helped.	36:51
Kisha Turner	Well, thank you very much.	37:06
Mary Tindal Canty	You're welcome.	37:08

Item Info

Title:

Mary Canty interview recording, 1995 June 23

Date:

June 23, 1995

Creator:

Canty, Mary Tindal

Contributor:

Turner, Kisha

Description:

Name: Mary Tindal Canty; Date of birth: 1927-09-16; Place of birth: Sumpter, SC; Occupation(s): waitress; health care worker; nurse's aide; Residence: Summerton, SC
Informant ID: 1200; Interviewed by: Kisha Turner.

Occupation:

Location:

Format:

Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South interviews, photographs, and project records, circa 1864-2011, bulk 1990-1999

Series:

Related Resources:

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Provenance:

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired the Records of the Behind the Veil Oral History Project from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

Copyright for content created by the Behind the Veil project is held by Duke University and made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC) license.

Identifier:

Interview number: 1042
10f9d739-2c11-4ad2-a83f-bbf58237103e
behindtheveil
btvct09089
ark:/87924/r4988730w
ac4256e8-fd4e-421e-948f-733bcb7d0e35

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Mary Canty interview recording, 1995 June 23

Transcript

Item Info

1. Mary Canty administrative file, 1995

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Mary Canty interview recording, 1995 June 23

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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