The following segment offers a number of glimpses of early twentieth century social dynamics among the folk in St. Thomas. It was gleaned from a tape recording of an interview done with the editor's mother while conducting field work for the 1990 Folklife Festival of the Smithsonian Institution. Numerous such unedited tapes and notes are available, and we hope that exposure to these samplings will stimulate readers enough to spawn a new cadre of cultural researchers, whether as analysers of the material now on hand or gatherers of more current data.

```I = interviewer Gilbert A. Sprauve; E = Eunice Sprauve

I: Most of the people at that time, the local people of St. Thomas, who were not in a position to own substantial resources and their own house . . . lived in dwellings.

E: ...rented houses.

I: Rented houses . . .

E: ...or rented rooms.

I: Could you tell me a little bit about that? I mean, where were these to be found? How would people go about the arrangements for rentals, how did they move from one place to another, maybe as the family grew and that sort of thing?

E: Well . . . umm . . . the poorer people really didn't have . . . there was a lot of poverty around, and the poorer people didn't have their own houses; they had to rent. Rent rooms really, so . . .

I: Were these people who had come . . . who used to . . . who at one point used to live in the country and they had now come to the town?

E: No, not necessarily! The people maybe in the country, I guess, might have been better off. Because there were thatch houses in the country. People lived in thatch houses in the country. I rememberer . . .

I: Do you remember seeing thatch houses?

E: Yes, I remember seeing thatch houses in the country. I remember seeing them.

I: But house made out of what they call wattle an' daub?

E: I've seen them. I can't remember what the sides were, but I remember the thatch on the top.

I: What part of the island would you say?

E: Out on the south side. I tell you, as a child we didn't travel too far. I don't know about East. I know about North. I could tell you about the north. Because we lived close to a family that were friends. Mother and they were friends. And the husband and the father of that family, he had land and so on, down Neltjeberg, right down in the bay, and that was...You had to walk to get down there and that's on the northside. And when they had these clubs. The clubs were where the other men go to help to clear the land, or they had other things they want to do. Work.

I: They were doing this right here in St. Thomas?

E: Yeah! I went to several clubs, because the children had to gather the wood and keep the fire going, so . . .

I: So, it would be like clearing a grasspiece?

E: Not a grassland alone, but with trees and big things there growing, was to chop them down and make the land ready for planting. Food. You see, and the wife and any friends she had from down . . . We were living in town, living just down there across from VITELCO, in that area down there where VITELCO is now.

I: So, you all would actually walk out, in the country?

E: You had to! You ain' had no way to get out dey. Yo' leave very early in de mornin'. As yo' goin' along de road, yo' noticin', yo' could see all what was goin' . . . That place by Dorothea has changed up so much to what it used to be! There where the Experimental Station was. That was a big grasspiece with animals in it. A big grasspiece! Hmmph? I was saying . . .

I: Back in town, in terms of the housing arrangements . . .

E: Well, you see, there was somebody who the owners put in charge, like a . . . collector . . . sometimes it was a woman, it was a man. No, the person didn't . . . the person might live in a property of the owner. They might, but, I mean . . . not necessarily on the particular place where . . . I remember Miss Miyah. She was one of the collectors for Lockhart. She lived in one over here by . . . Almost there by the gut.

I: Is that the same Lockhart for the bakery, or a different one?

E: That was the old . . . the bakery and everything had belong to the old father. The old father started all o' these; they in turn went to his children. I'm talking about the days of the old first Mr. Lockhart. Because I remember him. He lived in his place.

I: A local person?

E: Yes! That's Dotsy Elsko's grandfather.

I: And he would have somebody like Miss Miyah?

E: Yes! Miss Miyah collected for some parts of the property. He had a lot of property. So, she did collecting for this downstreet area. And I knew. He had property all about, maybe he had other collectors too. But, she I knew collected in the area down there.

I: And that would be: She would come 'round every month . . .

E: Yeh! She would come 'round and collect. One thing with Mr. Lockhart. I knew that he used to do, he kept a . . . team of workers: masons, carpenters, painters, you know? And he kept his place in repairs. Yes! He kept his place in repairs. Because, he came around on the Sundays to check the properties.

I: . . . the big yard . . . is something among your memories, that you saw a lot of social activities among the different families. What would you say was the general nature of the relationships that obtained in these areas where so many people lived . . . were confined . . . to essentially what we called long row houses, right?

E: Long row? Sometimes long row on either side. And a big yard. We had a well and a cistern . . .

I: Usually you would have a well?

E: Yes! Most times there was a well and a cistern. The well, you could get water there every day. But the cistern for drinking, certain times you got water from there.

I: There was no public tap you could . . .

E: No, no. Nothing about tap! When the collector or whoever was in charge . . . for instance, even though we had Miss Miyah there to remember, in the lower area, going down more toward the sea, that area down there, the Phipps--Edgar Phipps--was in charge, kind of in charge. All like where the Retirement, the GERS building, he had a garden in there. He used to look out for the lower section of the area down there, and I remember him with a garden in there. He plant de potato, and you know different vegetable . . . okra, and different things. A big garden he had.

GRAVE AND CRADLE

I: At that time the ice factory was . . . operating?

E: Yes, the ice factory . . . I don't remember exactly. I remember . . . I don't remember exactly when . . . But even though that ice factory was in my, in our area, ice was something that was . . . something more like a luxury. You just didn't figure you needed all that ice, you know?

I: The reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking of what used to happen, let's say, when there were deaths and burials and so on.

E: Oh . . . well, according to what time the person died. They had to be buried the same day. The coffins were made right here. And, if they died early enough in the morning they were buried the same day if they died later on then they had to be...you had to have them...the bodies were kept at home...and some of them were kept at home, you know. That's why you had the big wake, at night!

I: They had special things they used to do to preserve the bodies?

E: Yes, there were people who . . . knew to do it and they would use lime and lemon . . . they had kind of things they would use. I hadn't been around any of the bodies. I have seen them. I think I remember when my grandmother died. I think so. They didn't take her anyplace. She was there lying down on a door. They put her on a door. They used to take off the door. That's what they would do. Yeh! Take off the door, bring the door in, and put the person to lie on the door . . . Yeh, take off the door and put them on it.

I: You don't know of any particular superstition or anything that would . . . with that door?

E: No!

I: I remember when I was growing up the days before the real morgue and so there was a lady here on St. Thomas who took care of bodies.

E: Mum hmm!

I: I was trying to remember. I can almost visualize. I can almost visualize her, but I couldn't remember the name.

E: Tain' Miss Ruby? Ruby*?, a clear-skinned lady...

I: I was thinking of a heavy-set, dark lady . . .

E: I remember the lady, I remember . . .

I: Sister, I think . . .

E: Oh! Sister Curtis?

I: That's who it was? Did she do that kind of thing too?

E: I think she did. She used to attend to sick people on a whole. And, she have come up here to tend to my foot.

I: Really?

E: When I had this knee bothering me so! All-you were small. But she came up here. And she used to tie on the bush and the banana skin. Tie it on my knee and . . . The knee was giving me all that trouble.

I: And she was recognized as today, what you'd call some kind of herbalist?

E: Well, I guess so. They would call . . . what she did, she attended to people. She would come to the house and she would tend to you. She would recommend certain things . . . But her mother before her . . . because this is what my mother told me, because it was her mother the one brought me in this world . . . Her mother was recognized by the Danish government. You see, there were several older women who were [recognized] as midwives. I remember her mother too!

[When the original transcript was read to Eunice Sprauve on August 18, '94, she corrected "Miss Ruby" to "Miss Ivy." She also suddenly recalled the name of the woman who delivered her as "Taan Malaine," which she explained as probably derived from "tant," associated with an older and honorific "auntie" and "Madelaine," probably from one of the French islands.]

MIGRANTS AND TRANSIENTS

I: [concerning] migrations into the Virgin Islands as far as you remember, or people coming into the Virgin Islands from the other islands. What was the main stream of people coming into the Virgin Islands, and then settling here?

E: Well, I really don't know . . . amm. I knew some of the people. I knew some of the men, even women who came here. But some of them did not stay here . . . They went to . . . They went on this same Captain Smith boat we were talking about. They went down to Santo Domingo . . . wherever the men were, they went down. But there were some who came. but there were some who came here very [early?] Look at my grandmother. She came from Saba. But I do not know how she came . . . I don't know the story behind that.

I: That was your father's . . .

E: My father's mother, yes!

I: You remember her at all?

E: If I remember her?

I: That was Bella?

E: I remember her very well. My mother always tell me . . .

I: So she played an important part in your life?

E: Yes. Because my mother always told me. Yo' know how much t'ump I get? "Jus' like yo' grandmother, jus' like yo' grandmother!!!" She always tell me I jus' like meh grandmother. I had a lot of aggress . . . you know? She didn't fool around. What she had to say she said. Very strong-willed woman.

EDUCATION

I: Well, so you went to school, and went to Nisky, of course.

E: Hmm!

I: And later on you entered into . . . teaching.

E: Into the high school. What was I . . .

I: Until what age did you go to high school?

E: What I was . . . Until I was fifteen, because there was no other grade after...at that time...you see what happen, somehow Education was something that did not have priority in the islands at the time. And it was a matter of whether the colonial . . . Whether the Council . . . it was the Council at the time . . . could find money for teachers or not. If they could find, well they added a grade. If they couldn't find, well . . . that was the end. And at that particular time we got to the ninth grade, we came up through the ranks, but then there was no . . . we weren't sure of whether these would be a tenth grade or not. And we graduated from the ninth grade, but we weren't sure whether there would be a tenth grade or not. And by that time, at the age of fifteen I had already received a teacher's license, because you had to take examinations in those years. And you had to be examined in every subject. And you had to pass every subject. You failed one, you failed all. And during the years . . .

I: What were the subjects?

E: Well, they were English, Arithmetic--Mathematics you call it--Arithmetic, Physiology, Nature Study, Geography, all were by themselves. History . . . you had Writing . . . Yeh, the quality of your writing . . . Spelling . . . whatever they figure you would have to teach in Elementary School. Whatever it was that it was thought you had to teach, you were examined individually for. And you had to be knowledgeable about each of those subjects. For instance, they did not combine Geography and History. Geography was solid, solid geography. Arithmetic would have been Arithmetic and some Math, some higher Math mixed with it. History was solid, solid history. In the English you had all kinds of construct . . . You had your Mechanics, you had Literature, you had all kinds of things was thrown in there. You had a solid exam in each of these areas. Physiology, you had to know everything about your body. Health was something else by itself. Nature Study, you had to know all of everything about those plants you [were] talking about, and the structure and everything about them . . . So, during the Easter holidays that year, 1929 it was the class, our class had said that . . . it was advertised as I remembered, that the Department was giving examinations for teachers. The others, they went there for fun. But I was dead serious . . .

QUESTIONS:

1. What can we surmise about where the folk lived as a general rule if they were not country dwellers, based on this interview?

2. Why might country folk be better off than the urban poor? Is there a connection between this situation and that mentioned by Kurin while discussing folk culture and the Industrial Revolution? Explain your answer.

3. How are clubs similar to the lodges discussed by presenters Browne, Guirty Vanderpool and Watlington?

4. Are there signs of division of labor along gender lines?

5. What do you know about the St. Thomas land mass that might explain the informant's statement "Yo' leave very early in de mornin'?"

6, 7. Discuss the social aspects of rent collecting. Are you able to speculate concerning what kind of property belonging to the landlord a person like Miss Miyah would have inhabited?

8. How would the availability of ice impact on foodways? (See article by Oswin Sewer et al on foods during Slavery.)

9. Consult old newspapers or interview at least three elders and list at least two other businesses that Lockhart owned.

10. Is it possible to view Mr. Lockhart' choice of Sunday for checking the properties as an act of consideration towards his tenants? Explain!

11. Why would the big yard need both a well and a cistern?

12. Does the possession of a garden suggest any links with arrangements or concessions granted for survival--and sometimes the advancement--of the folk during Slavery?

13. Read carefully the passage that begins under the heading "Cradle and Grave"! Then discuss the narrative flow from the mention of ice technology in the Virgin Islands through the informant's discussion of how the dead were handled, up to the account of her own arrival in this world! Could you relate this as a local story with the beginning: "One night, when Granny was tired of the children pestering her about how life used to be when they didn't have this and that, she sat with them and started talking . . . ?"

14. The above section, beginning after the heading "Migrants and Transients" tells us something about how influences from other islands wove their way into the fabric of Virgin Islands society. How does this information relate to that in historian Whitman Browne's presentation concerning names and families in the Virgin Islands?

15. How many years in school do you believe constituted a formal education at the time the informant started her education?

16. What was the major practical consideration in designing the curriculum for the secondary school during this period?

17. What do you suppose constituted the primary requirement for one to be hired as a teacher? Would such a system be practical today?

18. What subjects are studied today by high school students that relate in a general way to the Physiology and Nature Study mentioned by the informant?