York David Garrett: So he went along with it. So he went to Cornell and graduated, and the best veterinary medicine school in the United States is at Cornell. It's Ivy League school. The best physicians in Ivy League schools is Harvard; the best law school Ivy League school is Yale; the best business Ivy League school is Penn. Am I right? And the best veterinary medicine school is Cornell. 

York David Garrett: And when University North Carolina, North Carolina State, found out that they were going to move the Tuskegee Veterinary Medicine School somewhere, A&T tried to get it and they beat them on it. And when this boy came out the school and asked for a job to do his residency, they grabbed him and said, "Come down here and do your residency. We'll take care of you fine, and if you can't, later on if you want to do any better, you can have a job here." 

York David Garrett: So, two weeks ago, he's been down there six years. Now he's 28 years old. He finished Cornell veterinary medicine and he had to do his residency here, and find out they liked him so well they gave him a job. Stayed there. They said if he stay there until he's got his PhD, he could have a job for life, if he wanted. So he graduated from North Carolina State University medical school 10 days ago with his doctor of philosophy. And that was my great nephew. His father was the one that was orthopedic surgeon. So, I've been very lucky. 

York David Garrett: But no, that was my older sister's children. They were twins, but she was the oldest one, and the youngest one was the one be in the drug store. And she never had any children. She got married, but she didn't stay married, so she didn't have children. But she stuck with me because she liked what I was doing. She stuck with me, when I first came here, she came here with me back and forth. I'll be here with the druggist's, and she be with me and I'd be in Tarboro, back and forth. 

York David Garrett: I held onto the store down there for a long time because I thought I might go back there, instead of staying. I didn't know how it was going to turn out here, and if it didn't turn out here—And things got better by that time, see? Then I had two doctors that, if I'm back in Tarboro, I could persuade them to come on back to Tarboro and I could make it better. I'd a had two doctors to depend on. 

York David Garrett: But after I wasn't there anymore, one of them ran on back to New York, over to Martinsville. Now he's back in New York, but I don't need them. I don't mean I don't need them, but I mean, you understand what I mean. Because I'm over the hill. I ain't [indistinct 00:03:01]. I'm a just sit here, enjoy talking to you. 

Kara Miles: So when you came to Durham, did you like it here? 

York David Garrett: Well, see I know about Durham before I came here, but in a social way. You see what I'm talking about? I told, that Durham was one of the towns in North Carolina that I knew for four or five years then. That's just one of the towns in North Carolina. Tell you the truth, North Carolina State right now, the group is on the top. They're the same thing in every town. In all those towns, they're known in every town they go to. Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston Salem, Highpoint, Wilmington, Durham, Raleigh, Goldsboro, Wilson, Rocky Mount, Roanoke Rapids. All those towns have Black medical—You know what I mean, professional people in them, and they Black, and they all know each other. They all just like this; they stick together, they do things together. See, it's easy as that. 

York David Garrett: And you don't, unless you just get so big that you can't speak to nobody no more. You don't forget your people. You follow what I mean? And if you get as old as I am now, you don't follow around here too much either, because they ain't got time to be bothered nobody 98 years old. Can you understand that? Yeah, why would they want to be bothered somebody 98 years old? When they could be somebody 72 years old? Okay. 

Kara Miles: Were there other Black pharmacists here? 

York David Garrett: There were four Black drug stores here when I came. 

Kara Miles: But you managed to succeed with all that competition. 

York David Garrett: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I had some help. Because Dr. Donnie was who he was; this big doctor, big state man and tied up with the biggest Black company in the United States as medical director, and he called all the shots. Because of that, they offered me more than just buy the store. 

York David Garrett: The family's close from the inside; they look after each other. The president of the Mutual was C.C. Spaulding. The second founder of the Mutual was Dr. Moore. Dr. Moore was the man here, his name was Moore. He finished Shaw University and was the first Black doctor to come here to Durham, but he married a woman that was in school in St. Aug, in nursing school. I mean, yeah, nursing school. And he met her while he was at Shaw, she was in nursing school. And they actually graduated here, they got married and they came here. And they came here as the first Black doctor here, and he was one of the vice-presidents and the second president of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. 

York David Garrett: And he brought all the Spauldings here, because the Spauldings were his people. He was a Moore, but the Spauldings were his people. Cousins, down. And they filled the town up with those people, and they were good people. They were running the town, they owned the town. They had Merricks, with a father John Merrick and his son John Merrick, and he married Dr. Moore's daughter. One of the daughters; Dr. Moore had just two daughters. 

York David Garrett: Another cousin of Dr. Moore, but he wasn't no kin to Dr. Moore. He was John Merrick's son, but John Merrick had a sister. That man that started the Mutual had a sister, and when C.C. Spaulding was brought here by Dr. Moore to take over and help run the Mutual of North Carolina, Mutual Life Insurance Company, he brought C.C.Spaulding here. And when he brought C.C.Spaulding here, C.C.Spaulding was single. He was a young man, he was single. 

York David Garrett: Now, follow me closely now. But John Merrick had a sister, so C.C.Spaulding married John Merrick's sister. So all the C.C.Spaulding's children were first cousins to John Merrick's children. And Dr. Moore was over all of them. He wasn't a Spaulding, but that was his family. He brought the family here, but he just happened to be named Moore instead of Spaulding. Down east, you all mixed up; Whites and Blacks, and all that. 

York David Garrett: So when that happened, he came here. He had close connections from his wife, from a town that I came from. And I had known his family—Not I had, my father had known his family all my life. So in a way, I wasn't no kin to them, but the family on the inside together. So that made McDougald, you've heard that name? He's dead, but you heard of McDougald Terrace. You heard the gym, got his name, McDougald Gym. He was one of Dr. Moore's second cousins. And as fine [indistinct 00:08:55] learned a whole lot about banking and so, had been sent to school for that. And he was the ones who helped start the Mechanics and Farmers Bank. And was the strongest man in the bank until he died. 

York David Garrett: But—not but, but and—of course, it wasn't but, it was and. 

York David Garrett: And the family had so much family stuff in them, that they stayed together. I don't mean stayed together, they—You feel me? So, McDougalds, Dr. Moore was Ariel McDougald's second cousin. Dr. Moore just had two children; one that John Merrick married, and the other one married McDougald. They're cousins, but they weren't too close of kin. They weren't exactly kissing cousins, but they were cousins. And they just had two children, little boys. So everything that Dr. Moore had went to McDougald, and part of the stuff that he had, which was the Merrick's because the Merrick's were the biggest thing on the other side anyhow, so they had everything. 

York David Garrett: And so what happened when their children got married, when Lyda Moore married Ed Merrick, whose father was the founder of the Mutual, and whose husband was the treasurer of the Mutual until he died, married. They got married and they had two children. And the two children they had are Dr. C.D. Watts, daughter, and Sansom, in Raleigh, daughter. They didn't have no boys, just the two girls. They were all those Dr. Moore's grandchildren and C.C.Spaulding's first cousins. And John Merrick, according to the marriage of his daughter, his sister with their cousin. 

York David Garrett: So, this family, they all tied in this way. And you get tied in with them and you know them well enough, you ain't got to worry about a thing if you do what they want you to do, or do what you want to do if they agree with it. You ain't got nothing to worry about. So what they did for me, they promised me, they call it a bunch of office and things. Not at one time. Before I came down there in 1913, the year I went to Howard, I stopped by Richmond first and met a lot of people in Richmond that I had never known before. But I was visiting with a family, a very strong Black family on Claire Street in Richmond. 

York David Garrett: And I got to know this lady, she's an old lady, but she challenged. Nothing wrong. [indistinct 00:11:43] doing, so soon as she found out I was going to Howard, I had never been to Howard. She said, "Y'all, if you would go to Lincoln—Not Lincoln, through Union, you could stay with me. You wouldn't have no house rent to pay, nothing like that. Because you a nice boy." I was just only about 17, 18 years old. That's all I was. "And I help you get through school. I said, "I don't need no help. My father's going to get me through school. I'm going to Howard, my application's already in, so I'm going to Howard." 

York David Garrett: But I got to know that family real well, and while I was with that family, there was a young man just a little older than I was, father had started the Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia. Big Blacks. They was these big Blacks in Richmond, and the bank closed but he had been trained in business finance. And he had left Richmond years ago, in '13. I hadn't seen him. This is '32 when I came here. I knew about him, but hadn't been seeing him. And when I came here, he was not in Richmond anymore. He was comptroller for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, living here in Durham, right up the street here. And remembered me, I remembered him. And he found out they were trying to get me to come here, so he came and told me. Said, "Y'all, I'm comptroller of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. If you want to come here—" He knew I didn't want to come, because he had knew me a long time. He knew I had a whole lot of connections. I'm talking about girl connections. He had them too. 

York David Garrett: He said, "If you wanted to come here, you'll make it because I can see that you'll make it this way." Said, "We have a whole lot of people at the Mutual and the bank, and the Mutual Savings and Loan, that are working. More women than we have men, and they all get good salaries and they all spend money for medicine, this, that and the other. But they all need accounts. They'll need somebody take care of them. If you can come there, you heard about all members council, all those people that I tell you about that I send to you, you won't have to worry about a thing. Because I'll see you get paid. 

York David Garrett: If you got on and lose job over there, I'll find out about it before they do and they ain't going to be owing you a whole lot of money. Understand what I mean? And if you do that and take care of all those people like they need to be taken care of—" Said, "It's going to be a little hard on this way because they ain't going to pay you good, but they good payers. They going to pay you. They may, you have a 30 day, or 60 days, or 90 day account, they may pay in six months, but they will pay you. Because long as they got their job, they going to have to pay you." That type of thing. You understand what I mean? 

York David Garrett: And that was WD Hill. You heard that name since you been here, because there's something up here named after him. And I had known him before I left and went to Howard. And that relationship stayed close until he died. So I had him, and I had Mr. Cardi Moore's, Dr. Moore's wife. She and my wife's mother were first cousins. I had McDougald, who had married Dr. Moore's daughter, and he's the head of the bank. Are you following me? 

York David Garrett: So between all those people, told me, "If you come here and wanted to make it, you could make it if you want to make it. And if at any time you don't want to stay, you can leave any time you want to. There won't be no [indistinct 00:15:49] than you came." And so I never left. 

Kara Miles: I read in this thing about the "back room" at the Biltmore. What was that? 

York David Garrett: Well, that was it. When I came here, the Biltmore was a good sized building. Had a front and a back. I don't know where you got that from, but this is true. All the best people—I don't mean best people. All good people, put it that way, that frequented in a social way, would always—Not always the same ones all the time. Would wind up in the back part of the drugstore where we played bridge and stuff like that, and didn't have anything against the front part. So if we had a prescription that had to be filled, and people we waiting on, but they could be there and socialized, and fraternize, and play bridge and all this stuff together. And coming and going just like this. 

York David Garrett: And not only that, I was a single—A lot of single players. I was the central person that they all got to know and they could depend on me. And anybody that had something to do that he was wanting to do, or supposed to do, or hoped to do, and they want everybody to know what they're doing, he come by and tell me there, "I'll be out for two hours. Anybody calling me, take the message for me." There wasn't no cell phone. 

York David Garrett: Then he gone, and all of them married, women and men. And he come back, "Yeah, doc. I get any calls while I was gone? Anybody looking for me?" I said, "Yeah, so-and-so called. I told them you'd be here in a few minutes. You was up the street somewhere." I said, "No, ain't nobody called." 

York David Garrett: "All right then. Well, I'm going on home now." That's how they—But the back room was a socializing place for the whole bunch of people, of certain types. Mostly professional, and business people, and done. And they had access in this drugstore. Not in the department. In the back, behind the prescription counter. I had tables and chairs and things like that back there. There's a lounge and nothing more of that. They wasn't crooked. I don't mean that, but they could do what they had to do and wasn't nobody knowing what they had to do because they weren't doing it there. You know what I mean? 

York David Garrett: And if you wanted to play bridge, we'd have bridge going in there sometimes, we'd start at 8:00 in the evening—Didn't have nothing to do with stopping the business in the drugstore, because business in the drugstore stayed open til 11:00 every night. We'd have business going, or things going on there, and be a group back in the back rise and fly. Six to eight people waiting and as these people leave, another couple sit down and started playing. And they playing til 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. Any morning you want. It made me [indistinct 00:18:17] because either I'd be home, or there'd be somebody in there that I could leave the key with and they would lock up at 3:00. 

York David Garrett: So I ain't know you seen that on there, but that's what that was and I operated. After I bought the place, it got to be a social gathering. Not for women, for men in the town. And all the men, it was a social gathering there. Where people who were officers or big jobs with the Mutual, the bank, other certain billing and loan, and teachers too. There were a lot of principals in schools here, youngsters. You know what I mean? Knoxville College and so-and-so, Yale and Harvard, and they taught in the schools. All those were frequenting the place and I was the—This my place after I bought it. And they were welcome, and I took good care of them and I didn't put their business in the streets, and I didn't put my business in the streets if I had any. Of course I never had any. 

York David Garrett: So it was, everything was fine. 

Kara Miles: So, the back room was there before you owned it? 

York David Garrett: That was a part of the building. The building, the hotel was a great big building and the drugstore was just one section of it. Now, there was three stories to the hotel. Top floor, second floor, bottom floor and the basement. On the bottom floor, there was the drugstore and a place where you get food. They had a dining room upstairs, but the place down there like a quick food place where you can go and you can order your food, sit down there. And it had a piano and box—I mean, what you call them organ things? You know, what's the name of the thing? 

Kara Miles: A jukebox? 

York David Garrett: Yeah, exactly. And that was there in the space. Why? And there was they linked to the whole hotel on that floor. Only thing on the floor where I was, was just the drugstore, and was a link to the store from the front window, back to the back door, and one story up. And that's where the drugstore was, and that was much too much room for just a drugstore. So we used half of the store; wasn't no partition. Half of the store was the drugstore with the fountain, cigarettes, cigars, magazines, things like that. Booths, a fountain, ice cream, all those kind of things. Then right on back, everything the drugstore's supposed to have, we had in the drugstore. Plus the prescription. 

York David Garrett: Then behind that department, way it used to be, you really didn't see nobody filling up a prescription because they'd go back in the back and do it. It was a space big enough for me to have two spaces back there. One just for the prescription department they'd be working in. I had two or three people hired as druggist's. Then the bigger space in the back for the socialized for the, not women. The men in town that wanted to frequent the place, they were good customers of mine. I knew everybody in the room. 

York David Garrett: Yeah, so that's the way that got famous. And I operated it, and it was decent. There was no mess. The mess wasn't any mess going on, it was on somebody else. But I knew about somebody and their mother would come up, they could reach me and I could reach them. I mean not them, the person they looking for. You follow what I'm trying to say? 

York David Garrett: And I developed that habit and that disposition with the people so I was pretty well liked and pretty well trusted, because they knew I don't put nobody's business in the street. Didn't then and don't now. I put my own business in the closet, but not in the street. So, that's what they were talking about. And that got to be so well known, for 20 or more years it was well known that if you want socialize, you ain't got nothing, don't want to be just buying something, go on down to the drugstore, go in the back because they got tables back there and chairs, things like that. You can play bridge, you can do this, that, the other, or just talk about what you watching. The best football game, basketball, and on like that. 

York David Garrett: That's what it was and that's the way it had to be. And I liked it, and my wife liked it because I was spending so much time not at home, being in charge of the store, that you couldn't run the store unless there was somebody in charge you could depend on. That's what happened to the store before, when Dr. Darnell and them owned the store. They had nobody in the store that owned the store, that was the party, and so all the funds get messed up from here to here. And when I'm there now, all the funds go where they're supposed to get, and if I got enough money, I can pay all the bills. 

York David Garrett: And I can tell you another story. Went on up to the place that I had—I could buy anything that I needed to buy, from two or three sources. You know, and had good credit. At that time, your line of credit borrowed [indistinct 00:23:32] was anywhere from 30-90 days, anything you bought. Most of it was 60 days. Today, you have two months to pay for it then. Ain't no matter what it is, and if you sold $10,000 worth of stuff and in 60 days you get your money from it, you get your profit from it, you all right. 

York David Garrett: Anyway, I had two or three grown people. I had druggists and people like that. Then I had a connection with the high school, they were called the Diversified Occupational scholars. And they asked a lot of stores, not just me, in Durham that was—Colored—in business to take so many students from high school every year who wanted to train them in the things that you were doing. Whatever you were doing. And then you would take responsibility on that, and you'd train them and you'd mark them for attendance and everything, and that was part of their course in the school. In Hillside or in grammar school or what not. And that helped the students. 

York David Garrett: And what had happened for me is, now over a period of all those years, people now had grandchildren coming and going, seeing me and all that, because they're, "My mom was down here when she was a little girl." You know, and I say, "What was your mama's name? Which one are you? Yeah, I remember them." Only thing about it now is, very few of them left. I'm about the only one left because all those folks you talking about, they already dead. I went to seven funerals in the last four weeks. People I'd known for years, and I'm older than all of them. A man was buried the day before yesterday, and one was buried today that I knew, and he was a person grew up around here. 

York David Garrett: Because our store wasn't the only store, but we were the only store that survived. Others, as you got older and the people died, some of them didn't have nobody carry it on and wasn't looking. And those stores, when they got to that, they closed and was disposed of. When I came here, Dr. James, when I came there was a HI Drug Store, Bull City Drug Store, the Biltmore Drug Store, Community Drug Store. Then there's one or two people uptown, over the bank, they run just an actual prescription shop. What I'm doing now. All those were here in business, and they stayed in business until something happened or there's too much competition, too much traffic. And they either died or closed up and left, or something like that. 

York David Garrett: And the only reason I'm still doing what I'm doing is because I ain't got nothing else to do. There's nothing I'd like any better, so I don't try anything else. I know your heard down there about it, but that's what it was. That was a meeting spot. Another thing I did, I can say this now because they all supposedly dead. And there's always a whole lot of politics in any big business. When the Mutual, all the big meetings for the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and for banking, was held in Durham. They would come from wherever their companies was, where the meeting was going to be, the people would come here to meet. They had their meeting, but there was factions and groups in all these things, too. 

York David Garrett: And I was not involved. I didn't know anything, didn't need nothing. Nine times out of 10, when a big vote was going to come up, something going to happen, I knew what the answer's going to be before they had the meeting. Because the groups that voted to do it would get together at the drug store, back there in the hotel then, and say, "Well, I want him. I want him. Well, I'll vote for him. I tell you what, you do so-and-so, I'll do so-and-so." I heard everything they said, but they knew I wasn't going to tell it because it didn't mean nothing to me. I was just running the drug store. I wasn't in no Mutual. I wasn't in the bank. You understand what I mean? I wasn't teacher. I wasn't principal of no school. I had children in school, I knew all of the teachers and things. Because a lot of them that lacked things that'd be lacked, they were spending time here in our drug store too. 

York David Garrett: I had a good, close friend that finished Knoxville College and came to North Carolina to teach when he first got out of Knoxville College. He's a good fellow, a nice fellow, fine fellow. And when he first got out of Knoxville College and came to North Carolina to practice and work, he was teaching school in Washington, North Carolina and he was a good athlete and all that. He played on the Knoxville team and the little high schools coming up then, he would help with them. 

York David Garrett: I met him seven years before I ever came to Durham. Didn't think I would ever see him any more because Tarboro was in that area. We had a high school in Tarboro, had one in Greensboro, one in Washington, and all that. And we call that "down east." 

York David Garrett: So when I came to Durham later, that boy had left down there, had come to Durham to be principal of the East End High School, that was Puff Marshall. He died about three years ago and he and I got to be real, real, real close friends. For 30 years, didn't a day pass, if he was in town and I lived out there, we didn't see each other. He'd come down and spend his time at the store with me, talk about it. He liked bridge, too. You know what I mean? That type of thing. We'd have a good time together. 

York David Garrett: And he, all them little people knowing me, so it's just a good social group. I mean, the town was full of social people, but three or four big clubs. Women's clubs, the one men's club, big club. But there's three or four women's club that still be operating, of the different people in Durham that you don't have too many people in bridge club because if you got too many, you got too many. A dozen or 14 or 16 is enough for any club. You follow what I'm trying to say? And if you more than that, they start another club and call it by another name. The Low High, the Clean Highs, the Grand Slams, the Little—What is that? 

York David Garrett: Anyhow, my wife was a member of three clubs. She was the Clean High Club, and the Go Me Club. Most of them were bridge clubs, but one was famous for eating a certain kind of food they did, and they got to be real well known for that. And then there's another one called the Saturday Night Club. She wasn't a member of that, but she was invited sometimes. Then there was another club called the Educational Summit. 

York David Garrett: But that covered all of the groups of what we could—Everybody's good, but what we considered the best women back in Durham were in those different groups like that and they were just as competitive as they should be. You know, members of different churches and all that. Yeah, put all that together and had a ball. Yeah. 

Kara Miles: So you said it's a lot of professional people. It was mostly professional people that were in the back room and stuff? 

York David Garrett: Yeah, yeah. Either teachers, or bankers, or Mutual people, or stuff like that. Yeah, that's only those. Yeah. 

Kara Miles: Was it mostly professional people who bought things from the drug store? 

York David Garrett: Yeah, all of them were customers of mine. See, they were my customers because I had been—When Billy Hill, the man I'm a tell you about, talk about this, most of the people were themselves good enough to be who they were and you could give them accounts and they would pay you. You'd bill them and they'd pay you. 

York David Garrett: On the other hand, some of them, if you tied within those businesses that I'm talking about, if they wanted to run out on you, they couldn't. Because when you find out they was going, they could hold that check until they paid everybody they owed and that was it. That's the way, but I had a lot of Washington people, too. And they fit in, but they were not in this group I'm talking about, this back room group. They were people that worked at Lagenmeyer's, American Tobacco Company, another tobacco company. See, there were four tobacco companies here. They had common—I don't mean common labor, but special labor people. They were getting good salaries at the time. Whatever a big salary was at the time, they were getting those salaries. And there were any number of those people. 

York David Garrett: In fact, Durham was a hub at that time, and that's why I didn't expect to come here to do nothing because at that time, they had four stores here operating. Only reason was, the Biltmore had gotten in a bad rut. Opened up all the expensive stuff, and then the Black dentists and physicians would not support them because jealousy. They say, "Why would they help him? He up on top now. He [indistinct 00:32:55] anyhow to to help. Go get somebody over there that's trying to struggle to make it." So they sent their prescriptions to other places. 

York David Garrett: And they continued to do that until they died because all of that just my posters. But I was lucky enough to have a doctor down the street, three doctors over here that got to know me and like me, so they sent their work to me. They know me, and I know them! But I don't remember their names now, but I mean I was exposed to those people in another way. But they were coming and out, buying funny books and comics and things like that, and goods. The Regional Theater right next door to the drug store and you go to the theater, then come back by the drug store, pick up the ice cream and drinks there on their way home. 

York David Garrett: And it started this way on up, and as children grew up that's like it was. They'd say, "Doc, you don't remember me, but I used to get the best ice cream in the world. Them cones and everything, sometimes used them to make this stuff and put some ice cream in it. Man, that was some kind of good. I remember that." I say, "Oh, no. How old are you?" He say, "I'm 68 now." 

York David Garrett: I mean, they didn't even—I said, "Okay, then. Was it good?" 

York David Garrett: "Yes, some kind of good." Said, "I wish they had something like that now." But I mean, I have to go uptown and do everything for myself because ain't nobody do anything for me. So things that I never did, purchasing and all that, my wife did it all for years. Then I had some help that would do it. Now I don't have that help because I don't need any help. So, a lot of things I have to do myself that I never did before, so I'm out in the street every now and then, seeing people. 

York David Garrett: And everywhere I go, two people out of every street, Black people, I see, "Hi Doc. Hey Doc Garrett." So-and-so on. Sometimes they stop me and say, "Do you remember me?" I say, "Yes and no. What's your name?" I said, "When were you a druggist?" Say, "Nah, I never worked in drug stores here, but I was down there all the time." Things like that, you know? I say, "Well, what did I do wrong?" Say, "Nothing. If you did something wrong, I wouldn't be speaking to you now." (laughs) 

York David Garrett: Yes, indeed. 

York David Garrett: Okay, anything else you want to ask me? 

Kara Miles: A couple more things, yes. So, okay, you said there were working class people who came to the store, but they didn't come to the back room. 

York David Garrett: No, no. Just like your private home. You know, some people don't visit you, but you know them. 

Kara Miles: Did they even know that the back room existed? 

York David Garrett: Of course they did because they saw people coming and going all the time, but the back room was not public. That was private. But the ones who were using it, knew it was public for them because it had a special door. Here's the counter, here's a counter, all the stuff in the middle here. Through that door, go in to the [indistinct 00:35:46] go in through the back. See what I mean? Swinging doors, yeah. 

York David Garrett: And a lot of people I knew, been knowing for 30 years or more, never been in the back part of the drug store. They had nothing to go back there for. They wasn't playing no bridge, no cards, nothing like that. I never allowed gambling. Never allowed gambling in the store. Anybody that played, you just played for fun, but no money involved because that's when you get into trouble. When people started gambling, they get mad and started fighting. Pull out knives and started shooting and cutting each other. And I knew where that was going. There was plenty of clubs that did that, looked after that. You know what I mean? 

Kara Miles: All right, one last question. Why weren't women allowed back in the back room? 

York David Garrett: Well, they could go back if they had a friend with them, or a cousin. 

Kara Miles: You mean a man with them? 

York David Garrett: No, them customers, a lot of those people were personal friends of mine and my wife. And my wife was going and coming from the store all the time, and my daughter. She worked in the store regularly when she was a kid, up until she decided she wanted to go to Howard. It wasn't a cut off place, but just like you, you could be owning your own home. Some people may be invited in, and some people be invited to the door. And the ones who were invited in are your personal, close friends. Those people that were in there were close personal friends of mine and people that I knew a little better. Mostly the officers and all of the Mutual, the bank, and the building and loan, and teachers and the instructors, and yeah. The bankers, insurance company, and so on. So-and-so, all that stuff. 

York David Garrett: All those people were personal friends of mine and they had access. And a lot of people wouldn't want to go because they weren't interested in what we were doing. They wanted to be out somewhere, drinking some liquor, or getting drunk, or playing poker. You understand what I'm trying to say? 

Kara Miles: So, people couldn't drink liquor in the back room? 

York David Garrett: We served no alcoholic drinks. Didn't allow any alcoholic drinks except maybe after 11:00, if there's three or four people there that I knew real well. Because that was during prohibition. If they had their own liquor, they could sell it. They would go out from, get them a Coca Cola or something, and ice. Come back in, get a bottle of liquor and I didn't object to it. I never drank myself, but I never object to anybody else drinking what they wanted to drink. 

York David Garrett: But you couldn't be around me drunk because I wasn't around anybody drunk. I never been drunk. It's one of those things, I didn't go for that. And I wasn't against it, and everybody knew what I was for and wasn't for, so they did what they knew I would accept and what I could go along with and what I—And that was only the real close friends of mine. All these we're talking about were people that if you had a wedding or had something, they would be at the wedding. If it was a funeral or something, they'd be at the funeral. And wouldn't miss. Those are the people that I knew that close. 

York David Garrett: Then there were thousands of people that would stop and wonder, "I can't go in there. We don't visit him. We go to his business place and if we see him on the street, he's a nice guy. He's an okay guy, but you know, we don't socialize with them." Each group has its own social status and they like what they like, and that's what they do. And if you go along with them, you can get along with them all right. That's really the way that was. 

Kara Miles: Okay, I just have some forms I need to fill out, like with your family information and stuff. 

York David Garrett: Okay, all right. 

Kara Miles: I've already filled out your current address. What's your zip code now? 

York David Garrett: 27702. 

Kara Miles: And if your name appears in print, if someone writes something using this tape here, how would you like your name to appear? 

York David Garrett: Well, appear like it is. I went to Howard University and then I decided to go into pharmacy. The degrees they were giving in pharmacy then was a pharmacy degree. They don't give that now. They give it now, but not in four years. 

York David Garrett: So when I graduated from Howard, I got a pharmacy degree. So that's how I happen to be Dr. York Garrett Junior. 

Kara Miles: So would you like your name to be Dr. York? 

York David Garrett: That's the way it is in the book. If you look in the book, that's the way you saw it. Dr. York D. Garrett. Not MD, not DDS, but I'm Pharm D and that's what my license say and that's what my certificate, my graduation. 

Kara Miles: Okay. Let's see, I know you told me you were born in 1894. What's the date? 

York David Garrett: December 10th. 

Kara Miles: And you were born in Edgecombe? 

York David Garrett: Yeah, Edgecombe County. You can put Tarboro Principle. Either one. They usually say Edgecombe County because Edgecombe County is a big county and it's well known. And only about three towns in the county; Pinetops is one. Rocky Mountain's in half of this county, Edgecombe. Half of Rocky Mountains in Nash County, the other half of Rocky Mountain is in Edgecombe, because Rocky Mountain is not a county seat. Tarboro is the county seat for Edgecombe, and Nashville is the county seat for Nash. 

Kara Miles: And you are widowed? 

York David Garrett: Yeah, yeah. 

Kara Miles: What was your wife's name? 

York David Garrett: Julia Williams Garrett. 

Kara Miles: And do you know her birthday? 

York David Garrett: Yes, it's two days ago. She's born May 20th, 1900. If she were living now, last week she would've been 93 years old. 

Kara Miles: Okay, when did she died? 

York David Garrett: '77. August, I mean July the 27th, 1977. 

Kara Miles: Okay, and where was she born? 

York David Garrett: She was born in Tarboro, Edgecombe County. She and her parents, they're full families. Big strong family. 

Kara Miles: Okay. What was her occupation? 

York David Garrett: Well, she finished St. Aug. She taught a couple of years, and then she went to New York because she had a brother and a sister that lived in New York and she stayed with. For a little while, she was in New York before we got married. She stayed with one of her brother's girlfriend in New York. But when we got married, she came back to Tarboro. 

York David Garrett: We got married in '23 and from then on, that's what she was, my wife. After she got married, she never had a job. She worked like hell, but she helped run the drug store. She was over all the help in the drug store. Tell them how to clean up, this, that and the other. When to come in and go, and all that. She did all the scheduling and she did all my running around to the banks and things up town. Deposits and stuff, she was in charge of. I was in charge of it, but she was the one that they would see. And anytime anything had to be done, I would talk to either McDougald, until he stopped being at the bank. Then William [indistinct 00:43:24] and the people that did building and loans, along down there. 

York David Garrett: She was the front for all of my business affairs. She had the right to sign anything and any time they had something for me, they could give it to her because they knowed I was going to get it. 

Kara Miles: Okay, what was your mother's name? 

York David Garrett: Sarah Frances Garrett. 

Kara Miles: Does Sarah have a H at the end? Or just S-A-R-A? 

York David Garrett: S-A-R-A-H. 

Kara Miles: Okay. 

York David Garrett: That was my father's only wife. They were married when—He was about nine months older than she was. And they married, and they only married once, and they lived. He died, I forget what year they were married, but he died in '28 and she died in '31. 

Kara Miles: Okay, do you know when she was born? 

York David Garrett: I should know. I'd have to look it up to see. I know she was born on the 15th of March, but I've forgotten what year. But she was nine months younger than my father. I have pictures of all them upstairs. 

Kara Miles: Okay, do you know when your father was born? 

York David Garrett: He was born July the 5th, the year before she was born. But I tell you what, when he died he was—You can figure it out yourself. They were nine months apart in age, and when he died, he was 59 years old. He wasn't 60. I don't mean 59. Yeah, he was 59 years old because he didn't get to be 60. Am I right now, about that? 59 or 69? 

York David Garrett: Anyhow, he died in '28. On December, '28, and when he died he hadn't—I'm getting mixed up now. I know he hadn't reached 70. He was 69. That's right, he was 69. And my mother, when she died, see she died two years after he did, and she was 71. He died 69. 

Kara Miles: Okay, all right. Do you know your mother's maiden name? 

York David Garrett: Yes and no. Her father, in slavery time, most the Colored people took the master's name. She had a whole lot of cousins with the name Harrison, but she was not a Harrison, because when her father grew up he was married and he had children, and he didn't like his master, period. So one day when he was a young man, he hadn't married then. He didn't have any children then. He was a young man. A circus came in town, John Robinson Circus. Just like this big old circus still nowadays. Barnum and Bailey, so and so on. John Robinson came with the circus and he loved that circus so he changed his name from Harrison to Robinson. So he was known as Frank Robinson, and all his sisters and brothers, and all his cousins, were Harrisons. They kept their master's name because they liked their master. He didn't like his master worth a damn. And he wouldn't go say, he say he don't want to have it, and he never kept his name. 

York David Garrett: So, he married. He was the only one in his family was a Robinson, and he took the name himself. He named himself Robinson, rather than be named Harrison. And they kept that name til he died. But what he did not—Well, ain't no but. And because of that, that's why we don't have any cousins that are Robinsons, except his immediate family and his children and grandchildren.