Archive Record
Metadata
Accession number |
2002.018 |
Catalog Number |
2002.018.001 |
Object Name |
Audiocassette |
Date |
31 May 2002 |
Title |
Mary Alice Strayhan Coyle Oral History Interview |
Scope & Content |
Original tape. INTERVIEW WITH: MARY ALICE STRAYHAN COYLE By: Mrs. Nita Cole, Archivist & Ms. Kitty Coyle May 31, 2002 Mary Alice Strayhan Coyle was born August 15, 1915 at her home in Brushy, Louisiana, a small rural community about half-way between Plain Dealing and Benton, Louisiana. Her father, Hugh Helm Strayhan, was a farmer and later ran a general store. Her mother, Addie McKinney Strayhan, was originally from Rocky Mount. In 1940 Mrs. Coyle married Dr. Scott Coyle, a Springhill native, who had set up practice in Plain Dealing in 1931. The couple reared four children in Plain Dealing. Mrs. Coyle moved back to her old homeplace in 1976 and resides there today. In the first part of the interview she discusses her early family life on the farm, the commissary in Alden Bridge where her father worked in the late 1920's, and her early school days in the Brushy, Alden Bridge, and Plain Dealing schools. She also talks about her grandparents, Steven Reuben and Mamie Winham Strayhan and John and Lou Keith McKinney. She describes the antebellum house of her great-grandparents, J.P. and Lucretia Jane King Strayhan, which was her home in early childhood. In the last half of the interview Mrs. Coyle discusses her courtship, early marital life, and experiences during World War II. She then talks about the deaths of her parents and her husband. Interviewer Kitty Coyle is the oldest daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Scott Coyle, the second of their four children. Tape 1 Side A [Nita]:Mrs. Coyle, why don't you just start off telling us when and where you were born? [Mrs. Coyle]:When and where? [Nita]:Yes. [Mrs. Coyle]:I was born August 15, 1915 here in Brushy. [Nita]:Who were your parents? [Mrs. Coyle]:Hugh and Alice Strayhan. [Nita]:What was Alice's maiden name? [Mrs. Coyle]:Addie was my mother's name. [Nita]:Addie. What was her maiden name? [Mrs. Coyle]:Her name was McKinney. [Nita]:She was a McKinney. Where was she from? [Mrs. Coyle]:She was from Rocky Mount. [Nita]:Y'all had a lot of Brushy and Rocky Mount intermarriage in the family. Tell me about your father. Tell me what you remember about him? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh, daddy was the cutest thing. Kitty remembers him. He was real witty. He was just a wonderful person. [Nita]:He was? What did he do for a living? [Mrs. Coyle]:When I was real small, he was just a farmer. But later in life he worked in a big commissary at Alden Bridge and then he had a store of his own later, right down yonder on the highway. [Nita]:So how long did he farm, not very long? [Mrs. Coyle]:He farmed twenty years I suspect. [Nita]:Why did he give it up to go work in the commissary? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't know. It was this small farm and he just really didn't make a living at it (chuckling) so he got a chance to work in the store. [Nita]:Tell me what was the name of the store? Was it just called the Alden Bridge Commissary? [Mrs. Coyle]:Welori Lumber Company was the name of the. It was a big… Listen, Alden Bridge was as big as Plain Dealing then. It really was. [Nita]:Do you remember approximately what year it was when he went to work for Welori? Was it before World War I? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was before World War I. I don't remember. [Kitty]:Now mama was it…how old were you? [Nita]:When daddy went to work at the store? I don't remember that. [Kitty]:If you were born in 1915 it couldn't have been before World War I… [Mrs. Coyle]:I mean World War II. [Kitty]:You're talking about World War II. [Nita]:So in the '20's maybe some time during the '20's? [Mrs. Coyle]:When daddy went to work at the commissary I was a teenager I guess. [Nita]:Tell me about the commissary, what did it look like? [Mrs. Coyle]:Ooh, it was a huge store and it had everything. It even had a post office. Yes and we bought all of our clothes there. At least if they didn't have them there, he would order them from Lee Dry Goods. You know talking about Plain Dealing, I had never been to Plain Dealing over two or three times before I started to school up there. We went to Alden Bridge and Shreveport. [Nita]:Where was Lee Dry Goods if you would order from there? Was that in Shreveport? [Mrs. Coyle]:He didn't work there. That's where the commissary ordered theirs, their stuff. [Nita]:In Shreveport? [Mrs. Coyle]:In Shreveport. [Nita]:Now what kind of clothes did they have there? Were they things that you really liked? [Mrs. Coyle]:Well, they didn't have much there. Daddy would just have to get it…well they had anything. Of course we didn't have many clothes because it was during the Depression. We didn't even know there was a Depression on (laughing). [Nita]:It didn't look any different to you, did it? [Mrs. Coyle]:We always had plenty to eat. [Nita]:So did you go hang out at the store quite a bit because your dad worked there? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. I never did hang out there because they was always too busy. There were several people working there. [Nita]:So he wasn't the only one then? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. He wasn't the only one there. At Alden Bridge we had doctor's office. We had doctor that I think that everybody paid $2.00 a month. It was kind of like Medicare (chuckling). It was all you had to pay. [Nita]:Do you remember the name of the doctor? [Mrs. Coyle]:Dr. Hall. Yeah, you knew him, didn't you Kitty? [Kitty]:Yeah. Carol… [Mrs. Coyle]:They had a beauty…they had a barber shop. [Kitty]:Carol knows his daughter. Haven't you met his daughter? [Mrs. Coyle]:Jo Jo Hall? [Kitty]:No, what's another daughter? [Mrs. Coyle]:Becky? [Kitty]:She's been in the History Center. [Nita]:I think she came to Dogwood. Shanna and I met her at Dogwood. I think I remember her talking about that. [Mrs. Coyle]:Dr. Hall was just like an angel to us when we saw him coming we knew we would get well. [Nita]:Were you sick a lot? [Mrs. Coyle]:I always had a lot of sore throats, terrible. They used to say that I had to have my tonsils out, but I still have them. [Nita]:So you hung in there, huh? [Mrs. Coyle]:They hung in there. [Nita]:I understand at the commissary there used to be a lot of peddlers that would come through the commissary. Do you remember any of them? [Mrs. Coyle]: Any what? [Nita]:Peddlers? Jewish Peddlers? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh yeah. They came there. Sure. [Nita]:Tell me about them. [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't know that much about them. I know I've been walking down the street in Shreveport about where they have their stores down there and they would come out and stand out in front and try to get you to come in and buy something. [Kitty]:Was it downtown or along the riverfront? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was downtown. Texas Avenue where it mostly where it was. [Nita]:Yeah. On Texas they had all of theirs. But then would they send representatives out too? [Mrs. Coyle]:They had what they call "drummers". And they would come call on the store and see what they needed. [Nita]:Would they take the train to get there? How would they get to the store? [Mrs. Coyle]:I guess in the old, old days they came in a buggy and a horse, then we had a train too, a motorcar we called it. You didn't ask me about my early… [Nita]:No, I was just curious about the Jewish peddlers because I understood that there were some of them at the commissary. [Kitty]:What about Sammy Dago, mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:(laughing) He had a …he was a….it was an Italian. What is Dago? [Kitty]:It's Italian. [Mrs. Coyle]:Anyway this man, he came about once a week, I think it was and he would blow his horn way down the road and we could hear it. He had one of those shell horns, you know, Clark was a little old thing, my brother, and he said, "There goes Sammy Go Go" is what he called it (laughing). [Nita]:He had a conche shell, a seashell? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. We have one in yonder. Do you want to try to blow it? [Nita]:(laughing) I might give it a try. [Mrs. Coyle]:We used to have parties and everybody would blow that horn (laughing). [Kitty]:And we never could blow it either. [Mrs. Coyle]:Anyway, that Mr. Sammy Dago had everything in the world on his wagon. Of course we wouldn't buy the meat because we was scared you know and it was hot weather, but he had the best all day suckers. I mean anything you wanted in groceries. [Kitty]:He would come to your house? [Mrs. Coyle]:He would come to everybody's. [Kitty]:Not the commissary, but to the people's houses. [Mrs. Coyle]:No to our houses. [Kitty]:Like a traveling salesman. [Nita]:Was it a horse drawn wagon? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah, a horse drawn wagon. I remember when the mail came in the buggy, the everyday mail. We got the paper a day late but we always enjoyed it. [Nita]:Did you pick it up in Alden Bridge? You picked it up there at the commissary? The paper? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. We had a mail carrier that drove the horse and buggy. [Nita]:So you had rural free delivery back then? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah we had it then. [Nita]:Tell me, where did you go to school? [Mrs. Coyle]:The first years I went to Brushy School. They had a little bitty, I mean, you talk about a country school. I don't think our Principal ever finished high school (laughing). [Nita]:Do you remember who the Principal was? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah I remember his name. [Nita]:Okay, what was his name? [Mrs. Coyle]:Dewey Moore. We all went there, I mean Aunt Audrey, Aunt Susan, and we would walk. That's how we would…it was about a mile from here down… [Nita]:Was it off Highway 3? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. It was another road then you know. We called it the old road. It went parallel to our Highway 3. We all walked to that school. But in the second grade I started I went to Alden Bridge School. We had a two-room schoolhouse. I went in a covered wagon driven. Ben Winham drove it and it was pulled by mules. [Nita]:Why did you change schools from Alden Bridge? [Mrs. Coyle]:Well they actually closed Brushy because they didn't have the students. [Nita]:Oh, they closed it. [Mrs. Coyle]:Then when I was in the fourth grade they consolidated, most all of the country schools and when I started to Plain Dealing High School, I was in the fourth grade. [Nita]:Was year was that? Was that like in '24? Is that the first year? [Mrs. Coyle]:Something like that because I finished in '31. See I was in the fourth grade then. [Kitty]:She was born in 1915 so she would have been about nine in 1924. [Mrs. Coyle]:A little early because my sister wouldn't go unless I went, so mama made me go to school. You could do anything then (laughing). [Nita]:Did she go to the Alden Bridge School with you too? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Nita]:Okay. Tell me what did it look like? Was it a log building? Was it a wood building? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was a wood building. Two rooms. It had two rooms and we had a water bucket with a dipper in it and we had a wood stove. The boys would have to go get wood and build up a fire. We learned a lot. [Nita]:So you had classes in two rooms or you had like smaller children and then larger children in each side? [Mrs. Coyle]:We had…I don't remember too much about it but I know we had up to seventh grade, I think it was. [Nita]:Do you remember any of your teachers? [Mrs. Coyle]:I really don't. I remember about one of them at Alden Bridge, Ms. Florence. No, I think she was at Brushy. Ms. Florence McCrainy. Athlene Cornish taught at Alden Bridge. [Kitty]:She did? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. That was a friend of ours. [Kitty]:I believe Aunt Audrey told me about Florence McCrainy. [Mrs. Coyle]:Aunt Audrey taught out at Mott. She didn't teach at…. In fact she was going to school there at Alden Bridge and then when I went to Plain Dealing School that's when she went up there too. Aunt Audrey did. [Nita]:So now when you left Alden Bridge School did that close down and you transferred up to Plain Dealing? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Nita]:So that was the end of the Alden Bridge School? [Mrs. Coyle]:That was the end of the Alden Bridge School. [Nita]:That was when you were in the fourth grade that that happened? [Mrs. Coyle]:Mamie Lou and I both. We had a first cousin that was in the same grade with us too, Mary, Phyllis' sister that died. [Nita]:They told us that their papa built his house from the Alden Bridge School. That he used the lumber from the Alden Bridge School to build his house in 1929. [Mrs. Coyle]:You know on your questionnaire you asked me where I lived? We lived until I was about a teenager in an old, old house that belonged to my great, great grandpa somebody… [Nita]:That was J. P. Strayhan that lived in that house? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah and up in the attic he had a spinning wheels and antique beds. Daddy cut the posts off the antique beds and he (laughing) burnt up the spinning wheel. He wasn't too fond of antiques. [Kitty]:Isn't that a shame? [Mrs. Coyle]:He just called them old. We lived there until I think, didn't I say 1928 when that house was built? [Kitty]:I don't know. I don't remember. [Mrs. Coyle]:Uncle Frank…. Thelma & Phyllis' daddy built us a house right over there….well, you know where Gravy lives? [Nita]:Yes. [Mrs. Coyle]:Right there. [Kitty]:Gravy lived in that house for years. [Mrs. Coyle]:It was the prettiest house in the…. [Kitty]:I could show it to you if we have time. It's still there. [Nita]:It's still there? [Kitty]:It's still in existence I mean. [Nita]:Tell me what your grandfather's house looked like though. Was it a wooden house? Was it a log house? [Mrs. Coyle]:Grandfather's house? [Kitty]:Your great, great grandfather's. [Nita]:Yes. The one you grew up in. [Mrs. Coyle]:It was a wooden house. Everybody, well I don't think hardly anybody had a brick house. [Nita]:Was it painted? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. [Nita]:Was it two-story? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. It wasn't two-story but it was real big. It had a big hall in it and they used to have dances in the hall. [Kitty]:Mama, which house are you talking about now? Ubie's or the one you grew up in? [Mrs. Coyle]:I thought she said my grandpa. [Kitty]:See, she has gotten off. She is talking about the one you lived in. [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh! The one that I lived in before… [Nita]:The first one. [Mrs. Coyle]:It had a hall in it but it wasn't like Grandma Strayhan's. It was just a hall to get across to the….we didn't have but three or four rooms but it had an upstairs although we didn't use that. [Kitty]:It was a two-story. [Nita]:Was that the one that had the spinning wheel in the attic? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yes. [Nita]:And so how many rooms? Were there four rooms downstairs? [Mrs. Coyle]:About four. I don't remember about upstairs because it wasn't finished. I don't guess anybody ever lived up there but it wasn't such a big house. It had a kitchen and a dining room and two bedrooms I believe it was. [Nita]:It probably had the same number of rooms upstairs but just not finished? Have you ever been to Home Place? I don't know if you have ever been inside Home Place but it's not finished but people lived up there. But it wasn't finished. [Mrs. Coyle]:When Uncle Frank built our new house it was one of those shotgun houses only it was situated…instead of going back this way, it was sideways kind of. A shotgun house is one room right behind the other. It was pretty. It was painted believe it or not. Uncle Frank built it. He was a great, good carpenter. Thelma's Daddy. [Kitty]:Did he build the barn up here Mama, Uncle Frank? [Mrs. Coyle]:I guess he did. It's still there. [Kitty]:Yeah. I was going to show Nita the barn. [Mrs. Coyle]:You can't see it from the road. [Kitty]:You used to could. [Nita]:Can you remember what the front of the house looked like? J. P.'s house? The old house. Did it have a porch on the front? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. It had a porch. [Nita]:Did it have columns on the front? [Mrs. Coyle]: No. It wasn't anything fine like those antebellum homes. [Kitty]:But it was probably built in about the turn of the century, wasn't it? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was real old. [Kitty]:I'll bet it was pretty. [Nita]:It was probably built when around 1850? [Mrs. Coyle]:I didn't think it was very pretty then but I might now. [Kitty]:I don't know but he died in 1909 so it was probably built in the late 1800's I guess. I don't know. Is that the one that you thought was haunted? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. I saw a ghost one time. [Nita]:Oh yeah. Where did you see the ghost? [Mrs. Coyle]:In a little closet on the back porch. I opened the door and it was something sitting up there…it looked like a rabbit because it…but it was as big as a human. I can see it right now. I did not imagine it. It was just sitting there and then by the time that I screamed and hollered and everybody came, it was gone (laughing). [Kitty]:Did it have eyes all over it? [Mrs. Coyle]:It looked like eyeballs, that's what it was made out of, undoubtedly but I imagined it. Do you think so? [Nita]:I don't know that's pretty hard to imagine. Was it at night or during the daytime? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. It was in the daytime. I don't know. They always kidded me about it, but I still say I saw it. [Nita]:Well were there a lot of generations of family that lived there maybe that could have been somebody still in the family that was trying to talk to you, trying to say something to you? [Mrs. Coyle]:It didn't look like a human (laughing). It was a lot of different people that lived in that house I'm sure. [Kitty]:Where was it, Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Right exactly where that new one was. Where Gravy lives. I don't know where we lived while he was building it (laughing) but it was close anyway. [Nita]:Did they tear it down? [Mrs. Coyle]:They tore it down. [Nita]:And then reused the wood? Recycled the wood maybe? [Mrs. Coyle]:Some of it probably. [Nita]:And then nobody kept any of the furniture or any of the? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh we kept what we had to have in the house but it…no antiques anyway because like I said, Daddy burned up the spinning wheel. [Nita]:Who's house did you used to have plays in? [Mrs. Coyle]:That was in Plain Dealing, wasn't it Kitty? [Kitty]:No she's not talking about that. She's talking about when y'all were little children. [Nita]:Didn't you used to have a lot of plays? [Kitty]:Phyllis and them were talking about having plays. [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh, mostly at our house I guess. They said I used to preach did they tell you that? [Nita]:I heard you used to give sermons over the paper dolls is what I heard (laughing). So did you do other preaching besides that? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah I preached to the congregation (laughing). [Nita]:You had a calling then? [Mrs. Coyle]:(laughing) yeah, sure I did. [Nita]:Tell me what you did when you were a child after you came home from school. Did you have chores to do? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh yeah. [Nita]:What types of chores? [Mrs. Coyle]:Mamie Lou and I, my sister, we had to drive out the cows no matter how…it was nearly dark when we got home in the winter. And then the cows would be down in the field somewhere eating and we had to drive them up and put them in the pen and then we had to bring in wood. [Kitty]:Did you do that on horseback or on foot? [Mrs. Coyle]:On foot because it wasn't very far, right over here probably was where the cows were. [Nita]:Were they cattle or dairy cows? [Mrs. Coyle]:Dairy. [Nita]:And then who would milk them in the morning? [Mrs. Coyle]:Mama would. When she was sick Mamie Lou could milk. I couldn't, I never could. Daddy could but he wouldn't (laughing). Mamie Lou always helped around the house more than I did. I liked to ride the horse with daddy and drive the cows and things. Mama taught her how to cook. I never could cook when I married (laughing). [Nita]:What types of things did your mother cook? What was her…? [Mrs. Coyle]:Mama was a great cook. She was ahead of herself in time with her cooking. We had our own chickens you know and we had our own pigs that they killed every year. Mama could cure them and she smoked the meat and boy, you talk about good! [Nita]:Ooh! That was good, huh? [Mrs. Coyle]:I can remember she cooked a roast with tomato gravy and I never saw one until she cooked it like that. She had several things like that that she cooked that nobody else did. She was a real good cook. [Nita]:Did she have her own vegetable garden? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh yeah. We had a big garden, every kind of vegetable. We always had plenty to eat even though it might not have been what we wanted sometimes (laughing). But yes sir! That was one thing that I can say, we had plenty to eat. [Nita]:Would she get up and fix breakfast for y'all? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah! We had a big breakfast, bacon and eggs and biscuits and ham and sausage every morning we went to school. Your questionnaire said, "What did we carry to..." We carried our lunch. And we started to Plain Dealing I think Mama started light bread and up until then we carried biscuits. But we had to be more "high falluting" (laughing). [Kitty]:When they went to town. [Mrs. Coyle]:She made tuna fish a lot. That was after we got in high school. I got where I couldn't eat tuna fish for years (laughing). We didn't have lunch you know at the school. [Nita]:So you had to bring your own lunch. [Kitty]:What about when you took biscuits in your pails? Didn't you used to take biscuits to school for lunch? [Mrs. Coyle]:That's what I…biscuits but not when I went to Plain Dealing now. [Kitty]:When you were little. [Mrs. Coyle]:They would have laughed at us. One time when we were walking to school at Brushy and it was creek we had to go across by the bridge, and we always threw rocks in the creek, so that morning I threw my lunch in by mistake (laughing). And the only thing I could eat was a boiled egg. [Kitty]:Mama, tell her about the time the bus broke down on the railroad track. [Mrs. Coyle]:That was the first year that we went to the Plain Dealing School because Aunt Audrey was on the school bus. We were coming from Antrim, where we had to drive off of the highway and get all of these people, and it was a railroad crossing and the school bus died right on the crossing and the train was coming. People were hopping out right and left. And Aunt Audrey said, "Nope. Nope. Y'all are not going to get out." She was always bossy. She made us stay in there. The boys were out there all of them trying to bus off and they got it off just as the train passed. [Everybody laughing] [Kitty]:She wouldn't let them get off (laughing)… [Mrs. Coyle]:That was scary! [Nita]:Heavens, well that does sound a mess. Now tell me about Plain Dealing School when you went. It was a brand new building? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. And all the classes went in the same building. They didn't have but one building at that time. I thought it was the prettiest thing and it had indoor toilets. That's the first time I think I ever saw one except for Shreveport. Nobody had them in the country. We had those "Roosevelt bungalows" I think they called them (laughing). [Nita]:How many rooms did the old building have in it? (Kitty):Yeah. I went to first grade in that building. (Counting) It had at least eight. [Nita]:So four on each floor? [Kitty]:Yeah. [Nita]:It had the wood floors? [Mrs. Coyle]:And they had to oil them. You know how they oiled them and our feet would get dirty. We went barefooted to school in the summer. Did y'all ever go barefooted to school (asking Kitty)? [Kitty]:Yes we sure did. [Mrs. Coyle]:Boy! You couldn't do that now, could you? [Nita]:No. [Mrs. Coyle]:Anyway, it was a pretty building. I thought it.. [Nita]:Did it have other things that the Alden Bridge School didn't have? Did y'all have more books or did you have desks? What kind of desks did you have? [Mrs. Coyle]:Those little desks you know…like.. [Nita]:The one with the seats in the front and the desk thing on the back? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Nita]:Did you have at Alden Bridge? Did you have that kind of desk at Alden Bridge or did you just have a bench? [Mrs. Coyle]:I just can't remember much about Alden Bridge. That's been too long ago. But in Plain Dealing we had nice desks. [Nita]:And everything was new? [Mrs. Coyle]:Well, it smelled like it. It was really was a nice school. [Nita]:That must have been so much fun, I think, coming from a little country school and then going into that big, fancy, brick building. It was the first bricked school. [Mrs. Coyle]:Bricks…yeah, it was bricked. What I loved about it was the indoor toilet (laughing). [Kitty]:Did they have those saloon doors like they did when I was a child, do you remember that? [Mrs. Coyle]:Those swinging doors? [Kitty]:Yeah. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah, they had that. I really….I liked school. I was different I guess because I enjoyed school. [Nita]:What was your favorite subject? [Mrs. Coyle]:My favorite subject? I guess it was History and Literature and Life as we called it. We had English about half the year and then the next, the other half, we had Literature. I still remember some poems I learned (laughing) not all of them, just snatches of them. [Kitty]:Oh yeah. She used to recite them when I was a child. [Mrs. Coyle]:That was my favorite teacher, Miss Dickson. She taught that. She could make it come alive. [Kitty]:Mama used to recite to me and all the time St. Agnes Eve. [Mrs. Coyle]:"Agnes Eve, ah, bitter chill," what do you call that? [Kitty]: "Ah, bitter chill it was…." [Mrs. Coyle]:Iambic Pentameter, that's what it was. Anyway I learned a lot in that. I wasn't near about first in the class but I could have been if I studied more, but I did like school. And I liked Geometry and Algebra believe it or not. I had a redheaded… Miss Adah B. she taught Kitty. She could really teach but she was kind of mean but if you acted right, she would be al right. [Nita]:I think all Math teachers are mean. I guess it's because you either know it or you don't. [Mrs. Coyle]:I did love Geometry and Algebra. They were just fascinating. [Nita]:What would you do for social activities in school? Did you have clubs or dances or organizations? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't remember any clubs or anything. [Nita]:So y'all just went to school and then you came home and did chores. [Mrs. Coyle]:We had athletic events. We had a football team and a basketball team. [Nita]:Was there girl's athletics too or just for boys? [Mrs. Coyle]:They had the girl's basketball but I never did play. It wasn't too much not like it is now with all of these clubs and… [Kitty]:What about in Home EC? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh I wasn't too crazy about that (laughing) but I did make…I had to make an evening dress to wear to the banquet when I was in the tenth grade. We just had eleven grades. I never will forget it. We had to have a style show and model them. Mine was pink organdy and it had big ruffles about like that. I don't know how I ever made it, somebody must have helped me. I got it made and I learned a little bit about cooking. What little I knew when I married, I learned. I learned how to make biscuits and I still use that recipe if I ever made any. I use Bisquick now. [Nita]:(laughing) Yeah? It's not bad. It works pretty well. [Mrs. Coyle]:I like it. [Nita]:So you had a banquet in high school instead of having a prom or a dance? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. We had the banquet. We didn't have a dance. But we had both years, the tenth grade and the eleventh. We had the banquet at the school. Then we went home I guess. [Nita]:Would they give out awards like for best student or that kind of thing? Or was it just strictly a supper? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was just a supper. I don't remember them giving out awards. [Nita]:But you got all dressed up so it was…that was a nice affair. I think that is a great idea having everybody make their dresses in Home EC. Class. What year did you graduate from high school? [Mrs. Coyle]:1931. Aunt Audrey bought our dresses to wear to the banquet in 1931. She was teaching by then. She was always good to us but she sure was bossy. "Now y'all can't do that. No. No." [Kitty]:But now Mama wasn't but fifteen because she started school real early. [Mrs. Coyle]:I had to go with Mamie Lou. [Nita]:So now what did you do after you graduated from high school? [Mrs. Coyle]:Not much of anything because I didn't go to college. I did have several little odd jobs like I helped my Uncle Isaac survey cotton. I mean measure it. I didn't do much and I didn't get married for a long time either. I just stayed at home. [Nita]:So was there a lot of activity, a lot of social activity in Brushy at that time? [Mrs. Coyle]:Not too much. Mama and them did have a Rook Club when I was coming up. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yes. I can remember playing Rook. But Mama died when I was twenty-one years old. Of course that was during the Depression and the War. She died in …(asking Ms. Kitty), Was it '37? Is that it? Yeah, just before the War. [Kitty]:They had a pneumonia epidemic. Mary died right before that. [Mrs. Coyle]:I remember that they had church events like the Missionary Society and all that. It was quite a bit of activity and meeting in the homes. [Kitty]:Phyllis and Thelma's sister, Mary, was mother's best friend. [Mrs. Coyle]:She and I were just two or three months difference in our ages. [Kitty]:She died right before your mother, right Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:She died about two weeks before my mother. It was an epidemic of flu called pneumonia. [Kitty]:And my father was a pallbearer in Mary's funeral. [Nita]:So how did you meet your husband? [Mrs. Coyle]:I did. I forgot in my career that I worked in a restaurant, same place y'all ate today. [Nita]:At the café? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was a café and I worked there after graduating. Well, I was about eighteen I guess. I was working in the restaurant and his office was right up the street. He had just started practice. He was about as poor as I was (laughing). [Nita]:He wasn't from here, was it? [Mrs. Coyle]:He was from Springhill and Cotton Valley. He used to come in there and have coffee every…two or three times a day. I think he came to see me more than… [Nita]:I guess he did! [Kitty]:Did Mary work in there too, Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. We had… [Kitty]:He liked her too. [Mrs. Coyle]:He had a date with my cousin first. One time she and I wanted to go somewhere and she didn't want to go with him. We was dating some Barksdale boys and she got me to go up to his office and tell him she was sick. He said, "Humph". Anyway I was… one day he was in the restaurant and I was listening to the radio (we didn't have any t.v. or nothing) and it was the State Fair that was broadcasting then. I said, "Oh, I wish I could go to the fair." He said, "I'll take you to the fair." And that's the way we went. [Nita]:So that was your first date then? [Mrs. Coyle]:That was the first time, the first date. [Nita]:That sounds like fun. So what was the fair like? Tell me about the fair. [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh, it was wonderful I thought. It just had all those rides. He and I didn't ride any but later I rode them. We went to a lot of sideshows as they called them. [Mrs. Coyle]:We ate stuff and even way after we married he loved to go to the grandstand show. They had real good… [Kitty]:He loved to go everywhere. [Mrs. Coyle]:(Asking Kitty) Did you ever go with us to the…? [Kitty]:No. I never went with y'all. [Mrs. Coyle]:Well it was really…they had some wonderful shows. [Nita]:So they would have headliners or stars for the grandstand show? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. You asked in that questionnaire, did we associate with the black families? We played with black children all the time. We didn't know the difference but as far as social, you know, the grown people…they were always good to…but they were always told to go in the back door and all of that you know. Now wasn't that awful? [Nita]:But did you or could you remember back then did that seem odd to you? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. It didn't seem odd to me because we had… [Nita]:Because that was just the custom? [Mrs. Coyle]:We had negroes living on our place. We had a couple of families. [Nita]:What were their names? Do you remember their family name? [Mrs. Coyle]:One of them was Buddy Williams and his…and another one was Brad Pye (laughing). I remember that. [Nita]:Were they tenant farmers then? [Mrs. Coyle]:They were sharecroppers you called them then. That was when Daddy was really farming but just before the War and all is when he quit. [Nita]:So did you play with their children then? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Nita]:Because they were on the place? [Mrs. Coyle]:Played with them all the time. [Nita]:Did they go to school? Did those children go to school? [Mrs. Coyle]:They had a black school. They didn't go to the white school. [Nita]:Do you remember the name of the black school or where it was? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't…I know they had one in Benton but I don't know whether they had out at Booker's or not. (Asking Kitty), Do you know? Booker's Chapel? [Kitty]:That's the one that Miss Stromile… [Nita]:Miss Stromile was talking about? [Kitty]:Yeah, that she was telling about. [Mrs. Coyle]:Did they have a school there? [Nita]:She says there was because we are trying to figure out where they went to school and if there were names for any of the schools that were out here. Because I know the white schools weren't…weren't any grand affair and so…we were just curious as to whether or not they had the same thing for blacks or…I know that a lot of them were in churches. You know they just went to school at church. [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't think they had as good a school, not near as good as schools as we did. The teachers weren't well trained or anything. That was just bad. They would go to Grambling but they didn't teach them much over there. I'll bet not a one of them was certified. [Kitty]:Well, neither were yours much in those days. [Mrs. Coyle]:Why, that's the truth. [Nita]:I think somebody told me that it wasn't until 1950 or 1951 that Louisiana required all the teachers to be certified. You had to be certified with…you know if you were teaching third grade, you had to be certified in third grade. They did a lot of…you know well you majored in English but you taught first grade because that's what they needed. [Mrs. Coyle]:We sure had some good teachers though. [Nita]:Yeah so they were dedicated. I was just curious as to whether or not y'all have ever talked….I know that we played school when we were children. [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh, we did too. [Kitty]:Mama, did you say to me that your mother taught school? [Mrs. Coyle]:Mama taught school. She quit in the eleventh grade. She quit school and taught for a year or two. You could do it then (laughing). She taught in Benton. [Nita]:In Benton? Did she teach elementary school over there at that Benton Elementary? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah, elementary. [Nita]:Because I hear Rocky Mount had a really good school. [Mrs. Coyle]:But she didn't teach at Rocky Mount. [Nita]:Did she go to school at Rocky Mount? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't think they had the school then. They might have. [Nita]:Did she go to school in Rocky Mount? Or do you know where she went to school? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. She went to school in Rocky…They did have a school in Rocky… [Kitty]:She went to Alden Bridge some because we have her picture in a basketball team. Remember? With the Alden Bridge on the jersey? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah but that was before my time. [Kitty]:Your mother when she was a teenager? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah, I know. That's right. [Kitty]:Remember we put that picture on the Internet? [Mrs. Coyle]:Where is it by the way? [Kitty]:It's at the History Center. [Mrs. Coyle]:Well, I want it (laughing). [Mrs. Coyle]:I love that picture. They had on skirts and played basketball. I can remember seeing them, not Mama. [Kitty]:She was about sixteen in this picture I believe. [Mrs. Coyle]:They had a star basketball team. [Kitty]:And Aunt Maggie is in it too. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah, Aunt Maggie. [Nita]:Yeah, they must have been really, really good? So, you didn't play sports when you were in school? [Mrs. Coyle]:No, I didn't. They didn't have too many for girls. I don't remember the… [Nita]:Just basketball. [Mrs. Coyle]:Basketball yeah. I should have tried that, but I didn't. I used to love to have track meets and things at home. Clark said I could run faster than anybody and jump higher. Now I can't even walk (laughing). [Nita]:They didn't have that when you were growing up? They didn't have that at school then? [Mrs. Coyle]:They had track meets, they sure did. [Kitty]:But not for girls. [Mrs. Coyle]:Not for girls though. [Nita]:Not for girls. Tell me about baseball. Did you go to a lot of baseball games? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh, I did. [Kitty]:You played baseball didn't you with the family? [Mrs. Coyle]:I loved baseball and golly I used to go after I married and had babies. I would take Sara Lou there on a pillow. We would go everywhere because Clark was the manager of the team and…you've got all of that from him. [Nita]:There was a stadium in Plain Dealing. Do you remember what the stadium looked like in Plain Dealing? [Kitty]:A ballpark. [Mrs. Coyle]:We always had some kind of stadium but not a grand one. [Kitty]:It's still there. The one that I went to when we were children. I can show it to you. [Nita]:Was there not one there in the '20's though? Like right maybe right after the school was built? Did they not put up a ….? [Mrs. Coyle]:There was something to sit on. I remember that. [Kitty]:It was a cute little ballpark. It wasn't a stadium. They had…the football team had a stadium. [Mrs. Coyle]:That was later. They had a nice stadium. [Kitty]:Baseball was played in ballparks. They had covered stands you know like with a tin awning or something over them. They were real…they were cute. They weren't like the football fields. They were like being out in the country. [Nita]:Baseball though was played with…not students, with members of the community? [Kitty]:Right. [Nita]:Because they would play…each community would play each other. So that's when I was just starting to learn about where all the communities playing each other and that that was so popular. [Mrs. Coyle]:They had…Alden Bridge had a team. [Nita]:Oh! They all did. Mott had a team and Walker's Chapel, and… [Kitty]:It was very important too. It was a big deal back then. [Nita]:It was. And then also the blacks had a baseball team too. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah but we wouldn't play them. [Nita]:No. But did you ever see any of the black games? [Mrs. Coyle]:I never did. [Kitty]:But I did, Mama, and they played in that same ballpark. [Mrs. Coyle]:I never did see it. [Kitty]:I have been up to see black people, black teams play in that same ballpark. They just played at different times than the white teams. They used to have huge crowds. Don't you remember the cars would be everywhere when the black teams played? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. I know. [Nita]:So now when did you get married? What year did you get married? [Mrs. Coyle]:1940. I had all my children by the time…let's see, Sara Lou was born in '48, she's the last one. I had them all pretty fast. [Nita]:Where did you first live? Where was your first home? [Mrs. Coyle]:We lived in Plain Dealing in a little old two-room apartment. Well that was…talk about no money that was hard. That was during the Depression and just before the War. [Nita]:That was before you started having children then so it was just the two of you? But that was still crowded huh? [Mrs. Coyle]:Two rooms ain't very much…a kitchen and a bedroom. Anyway we moved into a house later so it was better. Then he left there to go to the Army. He was in the Reserves at LSU and Tulane and he was called to duty before the War but everybody knew there was fixing be one. So we went to Alabama. I guess that was in 1941. He was stationed there until he was sent to Panama about six months later. Then I went to Panama. I think it was six….he went in June and I went in November and I was there when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Talk about scared, I was. [Kitty]:Tell her about that, that is real interesting. When Pearl Harbor was bombed and y'all were in Panama. [Mrs. Coyle]:It was on Sunday afternoon and I remember we were visiting across the street. We had a…we developed a lot of good friendships you know. We were over there playing dominos or something and somebody called or it was on the radio or something and it said, "Pearl Harbor was bombed." Lord, it liked to have scared to death! The men had to get up and go to the base because we just knew that Panama would be next you know. I still don't know why it wasn't. I stayed there six months and I was scared to death every day. I came home in a convoy, airplanes flying above, and ships all around us. Scared to death because they were sinking ships in the Gulf right there. [Kitty]:Did they evacuate y'all, Mama? The base was just… [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Nita]:Oh yeah, so you had to go. They sent y'all to New Orleans? Is that where y'all went by ship? [Mrs. Coyle]:We went to Florida. What place was it? [Kitty]:I thought you told me New Orleans. [Mrs. Coyle]:Well that's where I thought we were going. That's where I left from was New Orleans but we woke up one morning and it was palm trees everywhere so we knew it wasn't New Orleans. [Kitty]:And you were pregnant with me, right? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. I was pregnant with Kitty. I was sticking out pretty far. But everybody else on the ship was pregnant too, all the women. I never saw so many stomachs (laughing). [Kitty]:She said she was sick as a dog. You got seasick didn't you, Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:I didn't but a lot of people did. [Kitty]:Tell her about playing "Aloha Oe" when y'all left. [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh. They played 'Til We Meet Again or what? They put us all on this ship and stuck us…we went out in the harbor and that ship sat there all night. The band played on 'Til We Meet Again and we was all crying. Oh lordy. I didn't think I would ever see him again. [Nita]:And plus being there with all those pregnant women (laughing). I can't imagine anything more depressing (laughing). [Mrs. Coyle]:And that ship didn't move all night long. We said, "Why did we have to get on it?" But we did. It didn't take but three or four days. What is somewhere in Florida that is real..? [Kitty]:Miami? [Mrs. Coyle]:It wasn't Miami. [Kitty]:Pensacola? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't remember where it was and the Red Cross met us, the ladies of the Red Cross and took us to their homes. But we didn't spend the night because we was waiting on the train. We had to go on a train and go to New Orleans because our cars had been shipped to New Orleans. We had to go there to get them. Mamie Lou and Mack met me there. They had already left from Plain Dealing. That was in '42. They were living in Hattiesburg. Anyway they met me there. [Nita]:And then you had to drive back home to Brushy to Plain Dealing? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah and I don't remember how…they must have not come in to New Orleans in a car. They drove me home I remember that. I don't know what they did with their car if they had one. That's been a long time ago, sixty years. [Nita]:So then you were back home and saw before Kitty was born so that she could be born at home, huh? [Kitty]:I was born in Shreveport. [Nita]:And Hugh Scott…you had Hugh Scott with you then? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah I had Hugh Scott with me. Well, those were some pretty rough times right then. [Kitty]:And we lived down home the rest of the War. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. We had to stay with Daddy. Then finally got an apartment in Plain Dealing. Then I didn't see him, Scott, for over a year. Kitty was six months old or something like that. Finally he came home and we got ready to move again. We went to Oklahoma this time. I was pregnant again but I had a miscarriage. But I got pregnant again. Anyway we went to Oklahoma. [Nita]:Was he still in the service when you went to Oklahoma? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. He was sent there. We stayed there a long time, about a year and he had to go India. So I came home because wives weren't allowed to go to India. [Nita]:Oh my goodness. Oh yeah. Lucky you (laughing). I can't imagine taking children off to India. Why would they send him to India though? That's kind of an odd…. [Kitty]:He almost got sent to the Philippines where he would have died. [Mrs.Coyle]: When he went to Panama, he went to Washington, D. C. and had his orders revoked because he was called to go to the Philippines but he didn't. He went to Panama instead, thank goodness. He stayed in India about a year. [Kitty]:That's when you got that telegram from him? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Kitty]:Tell her what it said. [Mrs. Coyle]:It said, "Philippine Orders Revoked. Panama instead with you." See they wouldn't let me go to the Philippines and thank goodness. I didn't have to. But I went to Panama. [Kitty]:See Daddy was past the draft age and he had children so he probably could have gotten out of some of those… [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't think that when… [Nita]:Except being a physician maybe… [Mrs. Coyle]:Being in the reserves you can't do that, Kitty, I don't think. [Nita]:I remember Gene St. Martin, who was a doctor and a brand-new one and had just gotten his medical degree, and they were so short of doctors that he said, "I could have been Head of the Department." He was straight out of medical school. They wouldn't let them out because they needed physicians. [Mrs. Coyle]:Well anyway, he was fixing to get out with "Foggies" they called it. They had that "four foggie" and you had to have children and I don't know what all and he was… End of Side A 741 Side B [742 - 1485] [Kitty]:But I wasn't but three when the War was over. [Nita]:So then y'all came back here? [Mrs. Coyle]:We came back to Plain Dealing. I had built a little house while he was gone. I bought some ….two acres of land. I think I paid $50.00 an acre. It was right in Plain Dealing. The house that I had built is still there. [Kitty]:It's still there. [Mrs. Coyle]:Somebody has been living in it every since. The same people except Beth lived in a while and then she sold it to Suzette Merry? They still live in it but it doesn't look as; they kind of junked it up. But anyway we didn't live there very long because he didn't really like the house. But the main thing is that he wanted to build a clinic and we bought this.. the whole corner. You know where our clinic is? [Nita]:Yes, Kitty showed me. [Mrs. Coyle]:And we had a house on it too. We lived there in the coldest winter. We didn't even have a bathroom for a few days (laughing). Oooh, I never will forget how cold it was! Kitty was…how old were you? [Kitty]:When the War ended? [Mrs. Coyle]:Well you was over a year old when he came home, weren't you? [Kitty]:I was nearly three when the War ended. In fact I probably was three when he came home but when that house… [Mrs. Coyle]:I was pregnant with Gravy when we came home from Oklahoma. That was right. He was born…he was five months old before his daddy ever saw him. [Kitty]:We lived down home when Gravy was born, right? I remember that. [Mrs. Coyle]:We were living down there. [Kitty]:See, I remember…yeah, I remember. [Mrs. Coyle]:Then it was just… as soon as he got home…well, we lived in my house that I had built about five or six months and then we moved up there on the corner. He started building the clinic in '46 in 1946. [Nita]:Now was he the only physician in Plain Dealing then? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. They had an old doctor there, Dr. Bell. He had a partner, Dr. White. Dr. Bell died before too long. Dr. White didn't stay long. I mean he… [Kitty]:Dr. Swearingen practiced with Daddy for a while. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. And the old Dr. Keoun. There was another doctor there. Scott liked him but he never did like Dr. Bell (laughing). He sure didn't. [Kitty]:Why didn't he like Dr. Bell, Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:He said he didn't know what he was doing (laughing). [Kitty]:He sure was beloved by the town. [Mrs. Coyle]:But you know how your Daddy was. He said what he wanted to. It was just.. [Nita]:Well medicine changed so much and since he had all that time in the service. I mean he probably was up in the forefront of what was going on and Dr. Bell was still in the 19th century I'll bet. [Mrs. Coyle]:Dr. Bell delivered Madge and Clark's children. Scott delivered the second one. [Kitty]:He delivered Mike, yeah. [Mrs. Coyle]:He delivered Mike. [Kitty]:But Daddy always kept up, didn't he Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:He kept up with everything. Every night when he went to bed he read. My grandpa Strayhan used to do that too. You asked in there what my grandpas did. Grandpa McKinney was a cabinet builder. [Nita]:Oh he was? [Mrs. Coyle]:He built…you know that was in the days when you had iceboxes, he built…Lord, the iceboxes. Hugh Scott has a thing right now that he built. They call it a quilt box kind of like a cedar chest. It's real pretty. He used it for a coffee table. (Asking Kitty) Does he still use it? [Kitty]:I don't think so. [Mrs. Coyle]:What? He better not get rid of that. [Kitty]:He uses it in his bedroom for a trunk. [Mrs. Coyle]:It's where? [Kitty]:In his bedroom. [Mrs. Coyle]:Well, I hope so. My Grandpa Strayhan…. [Nita]:What was your Grandpa McKinney's first name? [Mrs. Coyle]:John but I don't know what his middle name was. My Grandma's name was Lou. That's who my sister was named after. [Nita]:Do you know what her maiden name was? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. It was Keith. It was Keith. Grandpa was married. My Grandpa McKinney was married once before he married Grandmother. He was buried in Rocky Mount and he was buried between his two wives (laughing). He is. [All laughing] [Nita]:Do you remember him when you were growing up? Was he still alive? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh yeah. He died after World War II and I was married then. He lived a long time. Grandpa Strayhan was a farmer and a surveyor. They said he knew every corner in Bossier Parish, you know, surveying. That's where Gravy gets it, I'd say. [Nita]:Oh. Now that was Hugh? Your Grandpa? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. I'm talking about Ubie (Stephen Reuben Strayhan). Hugh was my Daddy. Grandpa Strayhan. They always…they weren't rich but I mean they lived comfortably. So I guess he was pretty good at what he did. [Nita]:Do you remember him? He was a good-looking man, wasn't he? I saw a picture of him. Phyllis had a picture of him. He was very good-looking. [Mrs. Coyle]:Grandpa Strayhan? Oh he died after the War, I guess it was. They had a son killed in World War I, my Grandpa and Grandma. Uncle Clark and that's who Clark is named for. Anyway we all lived right here in Brushy. [Nita]:Tell us about Christmas. What was Christmas like when you were growing up. [Mrs. Coyle]:Well, we didn't have a Christmas tree in the house for ten days like we do now. We always waited until Christmas Eve to put up the… [Nita]:Why was that? Why did you wait until Christmas Eve? [Mrs. Coyle]:I guess because they thought that it would die. I don't know. We had a …we used to have a Christmas tree at Alden Bridge at the Sunday School. We had a big Christmas tree there and Aunt Maggie would have a Christmas tree at her house. Uncle Cavett would be Santa Claus and oh… that was so much fun. We all got presents. [Nita]:What kind of presents would you get? [Mrs. Coyle]:I can't remember…handkerchiefs. Daddy gave us a dollar a piece and we would go to Woolworth's or Kress'. A dollar a piece now and we would buy everybody a Christmas present. You'd get a handkerchief for a nickel, and perfume for a nickel (laughing). [Kitty]:But Mama, you didn't have a tree in your house when you were little? You had one like at church? [Mrs. Coyle]:We never did. [Kitty]:And Aunt Maggie had one for all the kids and all the family? [Mrs. Coyle]:After I got grown before Mama died seems like we did have a Christmas tree in the house. I'm thinking we did. [Kitty]:Thelma said they had a Christmas tree in their house. [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't believe it. [All laughing] [Mrs. Coyle]:No, after I had children, I know I had Christmas trees in the house. [Kitty]:No, she's talking about when you were growing up. When you were little would you go to the church on Christmas Eve to have your tree or did you go to Aunt Maggie's? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't know when we went but it wasn't on Christmas Eve because we went to Aunt Maggie's on Christmas Eve. They had this huge Christmas tree at Alden Bridge and every child got a gift, you know, something. [Kitty]:Did they tie it on the tree, the presents? [Mrs. Coyle]:They had candles and one time it caught on fire. [Kitty]:They said they weren't real candles but I can remember you telling me about real candles. [Mrs. Coyle]:They were too! We never had real ones in the home. But at Aunt Maggie's…I don't remember whether we did at Aunt Maggie's or not. [Kitty]:But the church had real candles. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah, they had candles. [Nita]:Who put all the presents on the tree? The church did that? [Mrs. Coyle]:We bought…the Sunday School and somebody would be appointed to go and get them. [Kitty]:You don't remember whether that was Christmas Eve or not? It probably wasn't since you went to Aunt Maggie's on Christmas Eve. [Mrs. Coyle]:We went to Aunt Maggie's Christmas Eve. [Kitty]:She had a tree. [Mrs. Coyle]:And on Christmas Day we went to Grandma Strayhan's. She had a big family dinner. [Nita]:What would she cook for Christmas dinner? [Mrs. Coyle]:I can just see her. She would cook a turkey and a ham outdoors, boil them in a wash pot. And she probably cooked more than one turkey because it was a drove of us. Grandma was a good cook too. Oh, I used to spend the night there and I would hear her grinding coffee. She would grind it every morning and talk about good coffee. [Kitty]:What about goose? Didn't you say that she had goose one time? [Mrs. Coyle]:Mama did one time but I don't think Grandma ever did. [Kitty]:When was it that y'all used to go to everybody's house like during the days of Christmas? [Mrs. Coyle]:That was after Christmas, right after it. [Kitty]:Between Christmas and New Year's? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Kitty]:They did like the Twelve Days of Christmas. Nobody worked and they feasted every day at somebody's house. Is that true? [Mrs. Coyle]:Mama loved Christmas. She liked it. She had a big…that's where Kitty gets it I guess. [Nita]:And so it was a big family thing. You went to all the family homes and that sort of thing? [Kitty]:Y'all went every day to different house and had a big dinner? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't think we went every day. I don't remember exactly (laughing). [Nita]:I'm curious as to how that got…how that tradition got started. I mean, did your grandparents or your parents talk about how they celebrated Christmas? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't remember that they did. [Nita]:That must have been how theydid it because you know if they were going to carry that tradition on. [Kitty]:Mama, when you had the tree at Aunt Maggie's house, was it a holly tree? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah, with red berries on it. A big tree. [Kitty]:Did she not put it up until Christmas Eve? [Mrs. Coyle]:Well as I remember that's what she did. [Kitty]:Aunt Maggie and Uncle Isaac didn't have any children so they would have a bunch…all the children in the family. [Mrs. Coyle]:I thought she had a pretty house, didn't you? Do you remember it? [Kitty]:Yes, I do. [Nita]:Did she put decorations on the tree? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Nita]:What kind of decorations? [Mrs. Coyle]:There was icicles mostly. They didn't have many balls as well as I remember. They would make some homemade decorations. [Kitty]:Paper chains? Did they make those paper chains? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yes, paper chains, cranberries, popcorn. Did you ever put popcorn on your tree? [Nita]:Yes. My mother used to have us…the worse part was letting it go stale so that you could string it (laughing). The first batch we would have to eat it and then the second batch we would have to wait for it to get stale. We did that. We used to string popcorn. [Mrs. Coyle]:Kitty used to make me string popcorn. I just couldn't stand it hardly because I would stick my fingers (laughing). [Nita]:It gets greasy on your lap. [Mrs. Coyle]:We put popcorn on for years and then we quit. [Kitty]:We did and then we just do that every now and then. [Mrs. Coyle]:I got tired of stringing it. [Nita]:It's a lot of work alright. Did you exchange presents with your cousins and that sort of thing? If you got a dollar who would you buy presents for with your dollar? [Mrs. Coyle]:Mama and Daddy and Mamie Lou and all of us. I didn't really.. [Nita]:So just within your family? [Mrs. Coyle]:I didn't exchange with my… We was too poor. Everybody was too poor. [Nita]:What kind of presents would you get? Did you put up your stocking? [Mrs. Coyle]:I got nice presents as well as I remember it; dolls, and tea sets and such as that. But one year Daddy sprained his ankle and he didn't have any money. I can remember that. We just got fruit mostly but I'm sure we got one or two little things. We didn't get like they do now (laughing). You ought to see what some of my grandchildren get. [Nita]:Tell me about church. Where did you go to church when you were growing up? [Mrs. Coyle]:I went to Cottage Grove and Alden Bridge. At Alden Bridge we had what you called a…(asking Kitty) what kind of church did I call it? [Kitty]:Union? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was an all denominations, you know - Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist. They would have a preacher from the Baptist one Sunday and one from the Methodist and then the Presbyterians. Then I went to Alden Bridge to Sunday School or to church there at least once or twice a month. We went every Sunday. [Nita]:Did Cottage Grove not hold services every week or was it..? [Mrs. Coyle]:They had it once a month like they do now. [Nita]:Even then they were just doing once a month? [Mrs. Coyle]:As well as I can remember. I don't remember them ever having more than that. [Nita]:Did you have church suppers and dinner on the ground? [Mrs. Coyle]:We had dinner on the ground but we never did have church suppers that I can remember. Not in the old, old days, but we did have dinner on the ground. [Nita]:Did you have baptisms there, since it was all denominations? Did y'all? [Mrs. Coyle]:I was baptized at Alden Bridge and they had it at…the night Mamie Lou and I joined, (laughing) well, there came a big storm and everybody said, "Did y'all join because it was storming?" We said, 'No. Mama told us to." [Kitty]:See, you know Phyllis, talking about her mother being nervous and excitable, and she was terrified of storms. Wasn't she, Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yes. [Kitty]:That's why she made them join the church because she was so scared of that storm. Now Lloyd O'Neal used to tell that story in the pulpit all the time about….He said the preacher said, "They might all be swept away that very night." Then this clap of thunder came and so she got up and ran down to be saved and took the children with her. (All laughing) [Mrs. Coyle]:Aunt Marie? [Kitty]:No, your mother. [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh. She didn't. That ain't true. [Kitty]:That's what he said. [Mrs. Coyle]:Who said that? [Kitty]:Lloyd O'Neal, don't you remember? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. I told exactly how me and Mamie Lou joined but I don't remember when Clark joined. We joined because Mama told us to. [Kitty]:Because it was storming. [Mrs. Coyle]:No. We already knew we was going to do it before it came a storm. [Kitty]:Oh, okay. [Mrs. Coyle]:They did. [Kitty]:You didn't join at Cottage Grove? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. I joined at Alden Bridge. The Union Church, that's what they called it. I was really Presbyterian, but they called it The Union Church. [Nita]:Now is that church still there? Is it gone? [Mrs. Coyle]:Everything is gone. Kitty and I rode through there not long ago and I couldn't believe it. I'll bet it was a thousand people that lived there, don't you? [Kitty]:Probably. [Nita]:What did the church look like? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was a wooden building but it was nice. That wasn't where we had the school though. We didn't have it in the church. We had a school building, a two-room. Anyway, the church, it looked like the Rocky Mount Church only not quite as nice. I don't think, well, I don't remember whether we had pews. We had benches with backs on them, something like pews. [Nita]:So you remember the Rocky Mount Church before (when did they rebuild that in the 1950's?). [Kitty]:I'm not sure. [Mrs. Coyle]:I can remember going to church at Rocky Mount. I remember riding over there in a buggy. [Nita]:And that was an old church though, wasn't it? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. That was the old church, the first church. [Nita]:It was the first church they had put up. Do you remember what that looked like? Did it look like a little Greek Revival house? Did it have a little triangle over it with an entrance? [Mrs. Coyle]:It looked kind of like it does now. Have you seen it? [Nita]:When they rebuilt it they rebuilt it to look like the original. [Mrs. Coyle]:Cottage Grove burned. Did you tell her that? It was a wooden building when it burned. [Kitty]:It was Bank's Chapel. [Mrs. Coyle]:Then they rebuilt that same church. [Kitty]:I believe that this one was built…was finished and had its first sermon in 1930. [Mrs. Coyle]:In 1930? [Kitty]:I'm pretty sure. I think it was '28 when it burned and then they rebuilt it and the first sermon was in 1930. [Nita]:But the church only dates to what 1880 something? [Kitty]:No, 1879. We had our Centennial in 1979. [Mrs. Coyle]:Did you know there used to be a college out there? [Nita]:No, I didn't know that. [Mrs. Coyle]:Out where Cottage Grove is. What was the name of it? Do you remember? [Kitty]:It was Cottage Grove Academy, wasn't it? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. Academy. It was…I think it was a woman's college, I'm not sure. They had it a long time. [Nita]:Were there any buildings there when you were a child? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. They were all gone then. [Nita]:What about Orchard Place do you remember if there was anything left of Orchard Place? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't remember seeing the house there. I know where it is and everything. They said they had gold doorknobs didn't they? [Nita]:Yes. It was fancy. What about Plain Dealing Plantation? Do you remember that? Was any of that standing? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't remember it if it was. [Nita]:We found a description in the newspaper in 1953 when they were talking about Dogwood, and they said it was a stucco building, Plain Dealing plantation. Made out of wood but it had stucco and had green shutters on it. I was just curious if you had remembered seeing it? [Kitty]:She remembers Swannhaven. [Kitty]:You know the Gilmer Place? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't remember that. I don't remember it. [Kitty]:But you remember SwannHaven, right? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Kitty]:Did you ever go there? [Mrs. Coyle]:I didn't ever go inside of it but we would ride around down there and look at it because it was so pretty. [Nita]:Did you know anybody that lived there? Did you know the people that lived there at that time? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. I didn't know them. But I knew some people that lived there later. But the Swanns owned it you know and I don't remember them. [Nita]:I think they moved off to Shreveport. I don't think that they lived there in this century at any rate, so. What about the Milling house? That was another one that… [Kitty]:She knew them. [Mrs. Coyle]:I've been in the Milling house. It wasn't very pretty but it was…it had a long…it had the kitchen separate from the house. You know they used to do that if you had money so it wouldn't be so hot and the cooking wouldn't heat up the house. [Nita]:And because you had servants that could bring your food to you. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. They had long…trails from the house. [Kitty]:They were pretty rich, weren't they Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. They had money but they didn't act like it. It was three old maids and two old bachelors (laughing) lived together. And they were "eccentric" as you might call it (laughing). [Nita]:Yeah. I can imagine. Goodness and they all lived together in that house? [Mrs. Coyle]:My grandmother, McKinney, was a good friend of theirs, of one of the girls, they were always called "girls". So she wanted Mama to take her out to see them and I went too. (I guess Mamie Lou did too). We went and oh, it was a musty old house. It wasn't pretty. Anyway one of them left the room and she was gone about an hour. I said, "Oh, she's gone to fix us some lemonade." She came out after that with a big old tray of water, with glasses of water (laughing). I never will forget that. The only reason we went was we thought we would get some lemonade. [Nita]:Can you remember what it looked like inside? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. I remember but it was just.. [Nita]:Was it dark? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was dark. It don't seem like, if they had pretty furniture, I don't remember. But I was just a teenager…I wasn't even a teenager back then. [Nita]:You were just a small child? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yes, just a small child. I think Grandma was disappointed too that we didn't have lemonade (laughing). [Nita]:(chuckling) Well I guess so, anybody would be. [Mrs. Coyle]:They had cats, the Millings did. They had twenty or thirty and they fed them salmon we heard (chuckling). They were good people. [Nita]:Who was that that was talking about them coming or going to the grocery store, was that Clark? [Kitty]:Yeah. It was Clark and Madge. How the Millings would go to the grocery store and eat while they were shopping. [Mrs. Coyle]:They had a chauffeur named…his name was Pete and I can just them. Even when we had the store some of them were still out there. Pete would bring them to the store. I think a lot of the man, Mr. Jim or Mr. (what was the other one's name?) anyway, they were really something. They had kinfolks in Shreveport that got a lot of money when they died. A nephew I think it was something like that. He used to tend to their business. [Nita]:Is that house still standing or is it gone? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. It burned I believe. It was there until I was grown and married and everything. Yeah, peopled lived in it until they died. Their daddy was a doctor. They gave…Scott was their doctor when they would get sick, he would go and see them. They gave him Dr. Milling's old doctor bag. I wonder whatever happened to that? [Kitty]:I don't know. Wouldn't you love to have it? [Mrs. Coyle]:They thought Scott hung the moon. He could be nice at times (laughing). [Kitty]:He was your mother's doctor when she died, right? [Mrs. Coyle]:Dr. Hall was really her doctor but he was out of town and Scott was with her when she died. Yeah. If we had penicillin like we do now she probably wouldn't have died. She wasn't but 45 years old. [Nita]:Oh, what a shame. [Kitty]:Mama, were you dating him at the time? Did you have a big crush on him when your mother died? [Mrs. Coyle]:I had a crush on him all of his life (laughing). [Kitty]:He came and took care of her mother on the night she died. [Mrs. Coyle]:I was going with him then, in 1937. [Kitty]:I read in Mary's obituary, I didn't know, but he was a pallbearer when she died. [Mrs. Coyle]:I didn't remember that but I saw it in the paper. [Nita]:Tell me about Mack Phillips. Kitty was telling me that he was Mayor of Plain Dealing at one time. He was quite influential. [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh, he was. He was in with the state government somehow or another. He was always going to Baton Rogue. He got money. I don't know what he did but anyway… he was… [Nita]:But he made improvements in the town, didn't he? [Mrs. Coyle]:He did a lot for the town. [Kitty]:He was very progressive. [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't why they had to leave here (he and Mamie Lou). [Kitty]:That's what I was telling Nita. I didn't know why they left when they did. [Mrs. Coyle]:Well, he had gotten real bad about drinking you know. I don't know really what the story was. I think he got in debt. [Kitty]:But she…you loved him dearly, didn't you? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh yeah. I sure did. [Nita]:How long was he the Mayor? Was he two terms as Mayor? [Kitty]:I don't know. Did he serve two? [Mrs. Coyle]:I don't know whether he did. I think he was. What year was he Mayor? [Kitty]:It was in the '30's right after Doug McKeller. In the '30's and yeah, I think he served two. [Mrs. Coyle]:He was good to me. [Kitty]:Yeah because he was…when Pearl Harbor got bombed, he wrote a thing in the paper about that we had been real worried about Mama and Daddy because nobody could find…could hear from them. [Nita]:Knew where you were, right… [Mrs. Coyle]:He got me a ride to Panama is what he did. Every time I was getting ready to go Panama, I had my reservations and every thing and every time it would be cancelled because of the Japanese or some big shot something was dickering with the President Roosevelt. And they would…just knowing that war was going to break out and they would cancel them. So finally Mack said, "I'll get you a reservation." Sure enough, he called the Mayor of New Orleans and told him that I wanted to get there by boat, rail, or air. So it wasn't anytime until I got a reservation. It was on a freighter but it was a nice freighter. It had the best food. In fact, I just had a ball (laughing). [Kitty]:She enjoyed the war. [Mrs. Coyle]:On the way to Panama. It took six days to get there from New Orleans. Mamie Lou and Mack took me down there. They still lived in Plain Dealing then. That was 1941. [Kitty]:Mack and Brisbane used to come visit y'all on the motorcycle? [Mrs. Coyle]:Come to visit me (laughing). Oh, Mack…yeah. I had a boyfriend that had a motorcycle. I know Kitty has told you. [Kitty]:Tell her his name. [Mrs. Coyle]:Brisbane Capers. Have you ever heard of Arthur Brisbane? Well that was his Uncle. Kitty said she knew of him. [Kitty]:He was a writer of some renown in the '30's. [Mrs. Coyle]:He was from New Orleans and he was here on a surveying crew, you know when they used to have those, I don't know what for. Anyway we started going together and he had a motorcycle and I rode on the back of the thing all the time. I wouldn't…how did I have the nerve? [Mrs. Kitty Coyle]:He and Mack used to ride all the way down from Plain Dealing to Brushy on their motorcycles. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. They would come down there. We had two swings, one at each end of the porch. We never did want to sit on the end that Mama and Daddy would sleep on, so we would fuss over that. We would court because Mack and Brisbane would ride down there on the motorcycle and there wasn't room for anybody else on it. We just court at home on the porch. I went with him. That was my first love and I mean he was handsome. I went with him for several months and when they left here (the crew) they went over to Vivian I think and he would come back over here bout every Sunday. He would eat dinner with us too. We would ride horses. Then finally when he left and went back to New Orleans I heard from him for a long time but I never saw him again. Mamie Lou and Mack saw him one time when they went to New Orleans. They called him and met him. He lived in the Garden District so he was pretty wealthy. I wasn't but seventeen years old. I wasn't thinking about marrying. [Nita]:Tell me about John Doles, Sr. [Mrs. Coyle]:What about him? I'll bet Kitty has told you a lot about him. [Nita]:No, she hasn't told me hardly…..very much about him. [Mrs. Coyle]:He was a real gentleman. I mean he was a fine person. He did a lot for the town as far as I'm concerned. [Nita]:What type of things did he get done for the town? [Mrs. Coyle]:He was in with the Long administration kind of and he could get things done for the town. [Nita]:Were he and Mack Phillips friends? I mean it sounded like they were both in with the Longs. [Mrs. Coyle]:They were friends but not real buddies. He was a lot older than Mack. [Kitty]:He was a lot older than Mack. [Nita]:But he was in the Legislature, John? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. He started to run for Governor, but he didn't do it. He was afraid he would get beat, I guess. [Kitty]:I don't think he would have. I think he would have been Governor if he had wanted it because Earl Long was pushing him. [Mrs. Coyle]:They belong to our church, he and Madge and John, Jr. He was really faithful except when LSU played football. They went every weekend to Baton Rouge for years. John, Jr. would still do it if his health would permit it. I'll bet he does make it next year. They were real good church workers. They thought LSU was heaven, I think (laughing). Kitty didn't think so much about it (laughing). Did you go to school there? Did you graduate from LSU? [Nita]:Yes m'am and my stepdaughter and son-in-law went. My mother went so oh yeah we are big LSU people. [Mrs. Coyle]:Are you a real big fan of LSU? [Nita]:I'm a real big football fan but I don't go down to the…we've been a couple of times to the football games. But my son-in-law has season tickets so he still goes. They've been out since…ten years now, but they go every year. [Mrs. Coyle]:Mr. Doles was on the Board of Directors and so is John, Jr. I guess. [Kitty]:He was President of the Board of Supervisors when I went. [Mrs. Coyle]:It was a good school, wasn't it Kitty? [Kitty]:Yeah. Yeah, pretty good. [Mrs. Coyle]:She just got lonesome. [Kitty]:Mama, I want you to tell her about the dances that y'all used to have in Brushy when you were a child…your parents and all, playing music and all. [Mrs. Coyle]:When Mama and Daddy used to dance? [Kitty]:Yeah. [Mrs. Coyle]:You know I told you about that big hall. It was as big as my house I think. They would have dances and they would have somebody to play for them. [Kitty]:Grandma Strayhan's house. [Mrs. Coyle]:They would have a fiddle and a guitar. My Daddy played the mandolin but he didn't play for the dance. Daddy could really play that mandolin. Anyway, I was too little to dance but I sure can remember seeing them dance. When I was teenager we used to have dances out on the yard. We had a portable victrola as they called them. Have you ever seen one of those? [Nita]:Oh yeah. [Mrs. Coyle]:We would wind it up and take it out in the yard. That's where I learned to dance. [Kitty]:And your Mama and Daddy used to waltz to Let Me Call You Sweetheart? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Kitty]:I always loved that song. I can just see them. [Mrs. Coyle]:At Grandma's house. [Kitty]:They were really in love, weren't they? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. They sure were. [Nita]:How did they meet, do you know? How did they get to know each other? [Mrs. Coyle]:I really don't know. I don't remember that. [Kitty]:Did they run off and get married though, Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. Grandma and Grandma McKinney didn't like Daddy. He was kind of wild (laughing). Anyway, Daddy never would go see them or take Mama to see them. She would have to go without him or once or twice he might have gone. They didn't fuss or anything. He just didn't like them. [Nita]:He just didn't want to spend the afternoon with them? [Kitty]:They didn't approve of him, so he didn't approve of them. I guess. [Mrs. Coyle]:That's right. I can remember Grandpa and Grandma coming to stay with us though and Daddy and Mama went to Shreveport and stayed at the Inn Hotel for three days. You remember the Inn Hotel? And they went to movies. [Kitty]:Why did they do that just for vacation? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah but that was before the Depression. They loved movies. [Kitty]:And stayed in a hotel for three days? [Mrs. Coyle]:The Inn Hotel. [Kitty]:Good gracious! [Mrs. Coyle]:Daddy must have sold his cotton. [Kitty]:He must have. [Nita]:So your grandparents would come and baby-sit with y'all while they would go off for three days? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. [Nita]:That does sound like fun. [Mrs. Coyle]:That was before Essie Jean and Patsy were born. [Kitty]:Are you talking about the McKinneys? Your Grandparents McKinney? [Mrs. Coyle]:McKinney, yeah. I can't see Grandpa Strayhan doing that (chuckling). [Kitty]:Tell us about Grandpa Strayhan. We want to know what he was like. [Mrs. Coyle]:Didn't Thelma tell it? [Kitty]:Yeah, but we want to hear your version. [Mrs. Coyle]:Thelma thought…I think Thelma thought she knew him better than anybody did. I never knew him too well. I know we used to spend the night there and he was a great reader like your Daddy. He read every night by his lamp. He had a table made….have you seen those tables made out of cheese boxes? Half of a cheese box and they put legs on it? A cheese box is about this big around (indicating size). That's what he had by his bed and he read way into the night. He was…he didn't talk much but he liked to drink a little bit. [Kitty]:Didn't he have a long beard? [Mrs. Coyle]:No. Uncle Tom had the beard. [Kitty]:Oh. That was James Peirpont. [Nita]:That was J. P. that had it. [Mrs. Coyle]:Grandpa never did have a beard. I don't think he even had a moustache. [Kitty]:What about Grandma what was she like? [Mrs. Coyle]:She was just a wonderful person. We all just loved her. We used to walk down there every day, maybe three times a day from where we lived over yonder. She never did like to go anywhere much. She wore long dresses to the floor. And an apron, she always had on an apron. She was just a home lady. She made a wonderful home. [Kitty]:When he died she wouldn't go to the funeral. [Mrs. Coyle]:I can just see her standing on the porch. [Kitty]:She was so devastated that she wouldn't go. They had lost their son the War, in World War I, and she was real devastated by that too. [Kitty]:Mama always told me how she loved her Grandmother. [Mrs. Coyle]:I loved Grandma McKinney too but I wasn't' with her as much as Grandma Strayhan. We walked to Grandma Strayhan's two and three times a day (laughing). [Mrs. Coyle]:We made playhouses out in the edge of the woods. We wouldn't go way down in the woods. We even had a cook stove. We made them out of brick. We fried crayfish tails. I used to like them then but I wouldn't touch one now. We caught them on a pin and some fatmeat. Aunt Maggie had a spring. We would go down there and fish and catch a bunch of crawfish and cut the tails off. It's a wonder we didn't set the woods on fire. [Kitty]:And you used to ride your horses all the time? [Mrs. Coyle]:I rode. I had a horse of my own and I rode every day for two or three years. But Daddy had to sell the horse during the Depression. You couldn't feed it. It got…I did. That was one time when I really felt the Depression because I sure did hate to sell my horse. [Kitty]:What was the horse's name, Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Clifford. Its name was Clifford (laughing). Daddy got it from a sideshow that came to Alden Bridge. They got broke and they couldn't buy feed. They told him he could have him for $50.00. That was….Lordy mercy that must have been when I was a teenager because I had him when Brisbane was here. I used to let him …he rode the horse and we would borrow Uncle Isaac's horse. We had a horse. We had two horses but one of them I wouldn't get on. We had some mules. We had a mule named Katie. She was the best riding thing but Mamie Lou and I were ashamed to ride on a mule (laughing). We had to kind of swap around, you know, let her ride one time and me one time. We did plenty of riding. That old mule could saddle like a horse. Anyway, I had a good childhood. Everything up until my Mama died, that was a terrible tragedy. Because she left two little children, you know. Daddy got married again but he didn't marry for eight years after she died. I made out like I liked her though. I was nice. [Nita]:Yeah, but it's not the same. It's not the same. My Dad passed away, well, it's been fifteen years now. [Mrs. Coyle]:Daddy died when he was seventy-five which was pretty old in those days. But it's not old at all now, seventy-five. [Kitty]:He was a real cut-up, wasn't he Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Oh, Daddy was a big cut-up. [Kitty]:You know that's ….Uncle Frank was so straight and everything, and his brother was nothing like him. [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah, Uncle Frank was so dignified. He really had a lot of humor about him, didn't he? [Kitty]:Yeah, he did. He had a dry wit. [Mrs. Coyle]:He had a twinkle in his eye. Oh, I just loved Uncle Frank. We all did. He lived a long time. [Kitty]:He loved his brother, Hugh, didn't he? [Mrs. Coyle]:See he…Daddy had a store and they used to play dominos there everyday, Uncle Frank and Daddy and two more fellows. They played every day. When Daddy died Uncle Frank would never play again. Nobody played but me and Madge some time. We played all kinds of games. Madge and I took over Daddy's store when he died. Because Scott died in January and Daddy in March that same year. They came down to my house one night, Madge and Clark, and said they had a real good idea. Because I didn't know how I was going to make a living. I didn't have much money. They said, "We want you and Madge to buy the store from the family." I thought it was a wonderful idea. So we did. We bought it. We ran it six years I think it was. [Nita]:That was up there in Alden Bridge? [Mrs. Coyle]:It was in the…you know where Luke's store used to be? It was at the crossroads really. Nah, it wasn't at the crossroads… [Kitty]:It was not exactly where Luke's store is. Luke's store was where the intersection to Rocky Mount. [Mrs. Coyle]:About a mile from there back down south. Daddy had a real good business. [Kitty]:It was in Alden Bridge. [Mrs. Coyle]:He did. He sold…. He was kind of like the Commissary. He sold shoes even. His little old building was little but he had… [Kitty]:He did that right until he died, didn't he Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. He worked up until he died. [Kitty]:He was in that store…people didn't retire then. [Nita]:And then you took over the store? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yeah. Madge and I did. We went broke. [Kitty]:You know that was something I hadn't thought about, but people really hardly retired. They just worked until they couldn't work anymore. It's like your Uncle Carter, I remember him walking to Walker Brothers when he was nearly eighty years old. Every day of his life, he worked at Walker Brothers. [Mrs. Coyle]:They never heard of retiring. [Kitty]:He walked from his house every day down there. Her Daddy worked until he died. [Mrs. Coyle]:He sure did. [Kitty]:Mama, wasn't it true that when Daddy died your Daddy was so upset that…. Her Daddy had these spells where he couldn't breathe. [Mrs. Coyle]:He had heart failure and he would have to come up there and Scott would give him a shot. Yeah, Daddy, he really loved Scott. [Kitty]:When Daddy died, he said, "Next time I have an attack it will kill me because my doctor is gone." [Mrs. Coyle]:Sure enough, it did. He went to the hospital but he really died suddenly. He was in the hospital but he had gotten a lot better and he was fixing to come home. They said he just fell over laughing and died. [Kitty]:He died laughing. [Mrs. Coyle]:He died laughing. [Kitty]:It makes me sad to think about all of that. [Mrs. Coyle]:But Earl was there. [Kitty]: He loved Daddy. I honestly wonder if that didn't contribute, Daddy's death…. didn't contribute to his. Because he was.. [Mrs. Coyle]:He wanted Earl to give him a cigarette. Daddy loved to smoke. I don't think Earl did it because…you could do anything in those days. I can remember smoking cigarettes in the hospital when I had a baby. [Kitty]:But they didn't realize about cancer and cigarettes until… [Mrs. Coyle]:They didn't realize that smoking in the room might blow up the oxygen (laughing).I smoked just because everybody else did. I didn't like them that well. But I did. When we played cards, you never saw so much smoke. All four of us would be smoking. [Nita]:(laughing) Well, it got tense, all that playing cards. [Kitty]:Yeah. That's right. [Nita]:Did you play bridge? That's what she played was bridge? [Mrs. Coyle]:Do you play? [Kitty]:She didn't play Bridge; she lived Bridge. [Mrs. Coyle]:I was addicted. I can understand how people get addicted to gambling. [Kitty]:How many days did y'all play, Mama? [Mrs. Coyle]:Every day but Sunday and sometimes then. [Kitty]:She had this group of ladies and they played cards all the time. [Mrs. Coyle]:I know it…I was….well, I had to have a game every day. I don't how I did it. I don't know how y'all put up with me. I would come home and have to cook supper. [Kitty]:Ooh, she would come home and be slinging those pots! [Kitty]:Banging those pots. Daddy would say, "You better stay out of your mother's way. She's on the warpath." [Nita]:Because she had lost fifty cents at Bridge, huh (laughing)? [Mrs. Coyle]:I really did run it in the ground and I admitted it too later. [Nita]:But everybody did then. My mother did. My grandmother played Bridge three times a week and Canasta three times a week. So she played everyday. She had two clubs. They had four tables. I have a whole cedar chest full of linens, those little bridge cloths for those card tables with the little napkins that go with them. [Kitty]:Mother used to have some of those with the little card motifs on them. [Nita]:I must have thirty sets of them because she had four tables. She always had to have four tables and a lot of them she made herself. [Mrs. Coyle]:Later on I played Rook a lot too. That was fun. [Nita]:Oh, I love Rook. [Kitty]:Me too I enjoy Rook but Bridge was too much work for me. [Mrs. Coyle]:Bridge is complicated. [Nita]:Yes. It is. [Kitty]:Tell her when you tried to teach me and David how to play Bridge. She got so disgusted with David (laughing). [Mrs. Coyle]:David would call a spade a shovel. [Mrs. Kitty Coyle]:What did he call "puppy feet" a club? [Mrs. Coyle]:The clubs he called them "puppy feet". [Kitty]:He would say, "Alright I bid two puppy's feet." (laughing) Mother was trying to be so serious and David and I were acting silly. [Mrs. Coyle]:I taught many a person to play Bridge…many just from scratch. [Nita]:And they learned? But this group didn't learn? [Mrs. Coyle]:Kitty didn't want to. She didn't like cards. She never has. Sara Lou doesn't either but Hugh Scott does. [Kitty]:Rook maybe, but that counting up cards and knowing who's played what and all of that, that's too much work. [Mrs. Coyle]:I still read the Bridge hand in the paper every day. [Kitty]:Mama was an excellent Bridge player. [Mrs. Coyle]:I played Duplicate Bridge over in Springhill every Monday night. [Nita]:Did you get Master's Points? [Mrs. Coyle]:Yes. [Nita]:Thank you so much for your time, Mrs. Coyle. I really enjoyed visiting with you today. End of Tape Stopped 1485 |
People |
Coyle, Mary Alice Strayhan |
Search Terms |
Alden Bridge Oral history Rocky Mount |
Lexicon category |
6: T&E For Communication |
Interview date |
2002-05-31 |
Interviewer |
Nita Cole and Kitty Coyle |
Medium |
Plastic |
Recording media |
Cassette Tape |
Lexicon sub-category |
Sound Communication T&E |
Inventoried date |
2025-06-12 |