Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: But their marriage didn't last because they didn't— He was a musician. He sang in the Wheelhouse choir. He directed the choir at his church. He has a beautiful, beautiful bass voice. And they, he and Irene lived together, oh, let's see, they divorced when their son, they had one son, he was in elementary school I think when they divorced. He is currently the mayor of Baltimore.
Rhonda Mawhood: Your nephew?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Yes.
Rhonda Mawhood: And what is his name?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: His name is Kurt Schmoke.
Rhonda Mawhood: Kurt Schmoke.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm—hmm. I have some pictures of him I will show you. Both of them, his mother and his father both remarried and each one of them had one child. She had a daughter and he had a son. So Kurt has a half sister and a half brother, and all of us are very, very close. We are still. In fact, you can see him and his family right there. Of course, now, that was—
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: — before he was married. He was a lawyer. I have to tell you, we brag about him. He's the star in our family. He was very bright and he went to Baltimore, graduated from Baltimore City College, which is a high school. He would've gone to Morehouse where his father went to college. But he got a four year scholarship to Yale and he went to Yale. He was awarded a Rhode Scholarship and he went to Oxford for two years and he came back and went to Harvard, the law school.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: He worked in the Carter administration and I've forgotten what department, but he worked in the Carter administration. Then when he got married, he came home and he started working in a law firm. He got interested in politics and his first political job, he ran for state's attorney and that was the job he held when that picture was taken. His wife, Patricia, is a doctor, she's an ophthalmologist.
Rhonda Mawhood: It's a beautiful picture.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. Now the girl Kathy, Kathy is Catherine Elizabeth.
Rhonda Mawhood: Okay.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: She's named. Her middle name is for her aunt. For this aunt.
Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: But she had a— This young man is her son that she had out of a different relationship before they married. But he adopted him.
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, it's a lovely picture.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. And she's an ophthalmologist and he's a lawyer. But, the second brother, the brother who went to the army, now my oldest brother had no children, but the second brother had three children. No, four children. Two sons and two daughters. And everybody with my family just believed in education. So the one who went to the army, although he did not go to college, all of his children did. And that's one of his daughters—
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, yes.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: — there. No, not that one. The other one. That's his daughter. Mm-hmm. Mm—hmm. Now her, she was the only one in the family who ever lived in Charlotte. Now, this young man, the man she married, worked with [indistinct 00:04:02] and he was transferred here and they lived here about five or six years. And she worked for Barclays America.
Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: And they just left Charlotte. He was transferred to Portsmouth, Virginia last month. And I just miss him so much.
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, I'm sure.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: And that other picture is Kurt at his wedding. That's Aunt Libby standing between Kurt and Patricia.
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: That's a really nice picture. Everybody looks so happy.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. Now, my sister married— Baltimore. She moved to Baltimore, and she married a Baltimorian. And while she was working for social security, before she decided to— She wanted to teach. And she taught in Baltimore for a while. And then she got interested in special education and she moved to Annapolis and works in school with special kids. Her marriage didn't last long, but she had one daughter and her daughter, she graduated from high school, but she didn't go to college. But she has one daughter and that daughter's getting married in September. We have a family reunion every other year.
Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: It's usually in July. And for this year it's going to be in September because we had this wedding in the family. So our family reunion will be in July, in September, September the 18th.
Rhonda Mawhood: From how far around do people come to this family reunion?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, my father, my mother was my father's second wife. And he had one son by his first wife. And he has a— Well, he's passed now. He was the first one of the family to pass. But he lived in Fall River, Massachusetts. And my brother who went to the army was stationed in Springfield, Massachusetts. And when he came out of the Army, he stayed in Springfield and he served World War II. And then he served in the—
Rhonda Mawhood: In Korea?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Korea. But when he came out, he came back and he settled in Springfield and that's where his children grew up. His oldest son went to college. Went to, gosh, I can't think of— He went to one of those Ivy League colleges and he got his master's at Georgia Tech. And he is a business now. He has his own computer business and he lives in a town outside of Atlanta.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: The other daughter lives in Springfield. And she's married. She has children now. She has one daughter who's getting ready to go to college next year. So we believe in education. If there's anybody who has any problem with tuition, well, they know who to call. In fact, Kurt's brother, I'll show you some pictures of him too. He graduated from— Now, he went to his father's school and he graduated from Morehouse last year. And of course we went down to see him graduate. But when Kurt's money ran out, I mean, not Kurt, Alex. Alex would pick up the telephone and call Aunt Libby and Aunt Libby would send him a check. Yeah. But it's a wonderful family.
Rhonda Mawhood: Sounds like it. It really does.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Yep.
Rhonda Mawhood: Sounds very nice. Is there anything else that you wanted to tell me about Mrs.Randolph that I haven't asked you about?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, now that I— Because I've always— I learned it from my mother, community service. She not only worked in church, but I told you she worked in— I told you she always voted and she worked at the polls every— She always worked at the polls. And she belonged to her lodges and everything. Well, I learned that from her. And I have always been involved in community work. So if you want to look at that video over there, I got all that stuff for you to look at if you weren't interested.
Rhonda Mawhood: I'd love to. Yeah.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. And you'll see all the things I'm involved in on that resume.
Rhonda Mawhood: Wonderful.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: And you can have it if you want to.
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, thank you. I would include that with the interview. That would be very useful. Thank you. One thing, did your father also vote? Mr. Randolph when he was—
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, you know, I don't know because he wasn't— I know he didn't vote in Raleigh.
Rhonda Mawhood: Raleigh.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: And he probably didn't because he was on the road all the time.
Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Well, thank you very much. I have to ask you to help me fill out some forms of genealogy, family history, which shouldn't take very long considering you've given me a lot of information about your family already, but—
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Okay. Mm-hmm. Well, let me— I want to show you some things.
Rhonda Mawhood: Yes, ma'am.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Unless you have a— I brought that—
Rhonda Mawhood: I would love to look at that.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. I brought those books for you, those scrap books for you. This is family stuff. And some of it is just pertains to me, but most of it is family.
Rhonda Mawhood: Well, why don't I liberate you from the microphone and we can fill out the form.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Okay.
Rhonda Mawhood: So there's a story behind your family name, Schmoke.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, my father, as I told you, he traveled. And he was living in, I think it was Birmingham. And his name was spelled was Smoak, S—M—O—A—K.
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: And after he lived there a while, he began missing his mail. And when he checked into it with the post office, he found that there was somebody else with the same name living on the same street. And so when the post office investigated, they found that this man had been getting Dad's mail, including his checks.
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, no.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. So that's when he changed the spelling of his name. Well, the thing is so interesting about it, also funny about the name, anybody who sees it, who knows our family, knows who we are. And when Kurt first ran for office and when he became a public figure, people would ask me if they saw his name in the paper. I know that fellow who's attorney in Baltimore, fellow who's mayor, he must be kin to you. But he is so much in the news now that I guess everybody— People who know me tell him that, "Oh, I know your aunt in Charlotte."
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: But he got mail from people of German descent who think he's German. And he sent me a letter one time. I sent it back to him, from somebody who lived way out in the Midwest, and they telling him how proud they were of him and they knew that he belonged to such and such a branch of the Schmoke family, and that their roots were someplace in Germany, and wanted to know if they could meet sometime or could they at least correspond. So I don't know how he responded to that. He told us that at Christmas. I always go to Baltimore at Christmas. I spent every Christmas with the family at Baltimore.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: But of course people have asked me if we had any German people out there. I said, "No indeed." I said, "We are all African Americans." Now my father's father had some Indian blood, whatever, the Indian tribe who lived down in Georgia, in that part, in Alabama. He was sort of had some Indian, some sort of Indian blood in him.
Rhonda Mawhood: And was this— So you know this from your father?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: That's from my father, yes. See, he had a picture of his father and he was a handsome man. He was a handsome man. And we just talked about how handsome he was. So he told me, he said, "Well, you know he's part Indian." I said, "Well, how much?" "Well, not very much, but some." But nobody outside of the family inherited any of that. So there's nobody in our family who looks like the Indian.
Rhonda Mawhood: Would you like to talk to me about your travels now or would you like to continue to with the forms? Well, I have some on you.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Let's finish the forms. You probably want to do that.
Rhonda Mawhood: Your sisters and brothers. I would just, if possible, like to have their names.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Okay.
Rhonda Mawhood: And then their date of birth and date death, if you remember them.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, I have their birthdays. That's why I can go get my little thingy-bob.
Rhonda Mawhood: — Name was John.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. John Hagen. Mm-hmm. And when he gave the doctor, whoever takes birth information, he gave the doctor— He named his oldest son after him. So he didn't tell Mama what he named it. He just gave the information. So mama didn't know he'd named him John until a long time afterwards. But she didn't want her son named John. But she didn't do anything about it. But my brother never wanted to be named John. Oh, she added a middle name to him. She named him John Harold.
Rhonda Mawhood: John Harold.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. John Harold. That was his name. John Harold Schmoke. But she never did anything about changing it on birth certificate or anything like that. So when my brother got ready to go to the Army, he had to have his birth certificate. So when he sent to down to Farmville to get his birth certificate, he got a letter back saying that they didn't have anybody out by the name of John Harold Schmoke. But they had a Harold Lewis Schmoke whose parents were the same as he had said his parents were.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: So, Mama was either still living there, or she hadn't moved. So Harold went— And so we always called him Harold. So he went to Mama and asked Mama, "What on earth?" So she said, "Well, you say, your father gave birth information to the doctors to give to the register of deeds. And he didn't tell me what he had done, but I didn't want you named after him. I just didn't want to. I just didn't like name John Hagen Schmoke. So when I could, I went down to the register of deeds and changed it." And said his name was registered as Harold Lewis Schmoke. Now, his birthday is May 16th. And he—
Rhonda Mawhood: What year was he born? And what place was he born?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: I was born in 1917, and I'm one year older than he. So he was born in 1918. Now, my sister, my third sister who died, her name was Alice Mabel Schmoke. And she was born on July 29th. I don't know why I remember that.
Rhonda Mawhood: Do you remember the year born?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Let's see. Let's see if we can figure it out. Now, she was the third in the family. And now, my brother was born the year after I was born. But I think there were two years between my brother and my sister. So if he was born in '18 and there were two years, she must have been born in '20, huh?
Rhonda Mawhood: Okay.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: And she was one who died when she was 14?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. Now, let me see. Now, my brother Julian who died— I'm going to have to look someplace else. This is my birthday book. And I don't— This is his son Julian Junior. Gosh. I have to look in the Bible to get his birthday because I just don't remember when he was born.
Rhonda Mawhood: That's fine. I can— If I— Any information that I get is wonderful.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: So let's see.
Rhonda Mawhood: You don't necessarily have to—
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: I don't know why on earth I wouldn't know. Let me see. Now June— Let me see who was born in— Harold was born May 16th. Well, let me find a sister and my youngest brother. And I know my youngest brother was born in February. His name is Murray Alexander.
Rhonda Mawhood: M—U—R—R—A—Y?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. Murray Alexander. And he was born February 1st. And oh, dear. He just retired. Let me see. He born on February 1st, '19. His name is— Sister Alice. Baby. R.L. Allen? No, Julian. Hermia. And Murray. He just turned 62. So how old would he be?
Rhonda Mawhood: He would be, would've been born in 1931.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: 31.
Rhonda Mawhood: It's '93 now.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because he just turned 62. Now, I've got to find— I know my sister's in here. Oh, boy. She's in here someplace. How old would he be now if he was born in 1922?
Rhonda Mawhood: He would be 71.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Okay. That's it.
Rhonda Mawhood: So that's your brother, Julian?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Rhonda Mawhood: Thank you.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: I don't know why I wrote it down here is Julian M. Schmoke, 1922. Let me see if I can find my sister. She ought be in here. I passed it. Oh yeah, here she is. She was born in October. On October 21st. Now, Murray just turned 62. She is older than Murray. She's next to the last. And she is, is she 65? Yeah. He's 62. Two, three, four, five. She retired last year, so she must be 65. So if she's 65, when was she born?
Rhonda Mawhood: Born in 1928.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: That sounds right.
Rhonda Mawhood: And her name, do you know?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Her name is Hermia.
Rhonda Mawhood: H—E—R—
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: M—I—A. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Hermia. And her middle name is Calanthe. My mother got her out of some Shakespearean play.
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh. And how did find it?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: I think her Hermia came out of a Midsummer Night's Dream.
Rhonda Mawhood: I think so.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm—hmm. Yeah.
Rhonda Mawhood: And how does she spell her middle name?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: C—A—L—A—N—T—H—E.
Rhonda Mawhood: C—A—L—A—N—T—H—E.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. And you just told me that you were born in 1917.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: What's your birthday please?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: March 18th.
Rhonda Mawhood: March 18th.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Yeah. I am 76. I was 76 on March 18th.
Rhonda Mawhood: Awards and honors we have on your resume I think. Yes. Good. And so that's on there. And your current religious denomination is Baptist?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Baptist, yeah.
Rhonda Mawhood: And your current church affiliation is First Baptist—
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: First Baptist West.
Rhonda Mawhood: West.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: And the church membership of your childhood was First Baptist.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: First Baptist in Raleigh.
Rhonda Mawhood: Raleigh.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: And organizations are on here as well. And are there any hobbies or interests or we've been asking people if they have a favorite Bible verse or a hymn or something like that, that they would like recorded just for the record.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: Anything else that you'd like to leave with people?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Oh, what was the first question you asked me?
Rhonda Mawhood: Well, the first, I'm sorry. There were two, yes.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: My hobbies.
Rhonda Mawhood: Yes. Hobbies.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: My hobbies, reading and travel. And as you can see from my resume, I belong to a lot of organizations.
Rhonda Mawhood: Yes, ma'am.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: And I don't know what you want to call that, but I enjoy being with people and working in organizations.
Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm. And community activities.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: And so the second question was whether there was a saying or a quote or something like that, you'd like me to put on the record.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: A quote?
Rhonda Mawhood: A quote or a saying or I don't know. Sometimes people have little sayings that their parents taught them that go through their minds.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: I interviewed a lady last week who had a Bible verse that she wanted me to write down.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well see if I had time to think about that, I could tell you plenty of them. My favorite hymn is "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind." And my favorite chapter in the Bible is the 23rd Psalm. And I like the Last Slide of Thanatopsis. But also something else that I like. And see when you leave, I'll think about it.
Rhonda Mawhood: Well, I'll see you in church tomorrow too.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, that's a good idea. Oh, dear. It's something about, it's by Tennyson. And it has something to do with life and death. Oh, dear. Oh, I know. "Come my friends is not too late to seek a newer world. Push off and sitting well in order. Strike the sounding for my purpose is to sail beyond the sunset and the baths of all the Western stars until I die. It may be that the floods will wash us down. It maybe we will touch the happy hours and see the great Achilles when we do. Though much is taken, much abides, and though we are not now, that which we were, that which we are, we are. Something, by time and faith, but strong and will to strive to seek to find and not to yield."
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: That's the last of it that I— Let's see now. "And though we are not now, that which in old days moves earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, one equal—Something of heroic hearts. Removed by time and faith for strong in will to strive to seek, to find not to yield." That's it. If you want me to, I'll find it.
Rhonda Mawhood: Well I think that gives us a really good indication, what you've said so far. It's interesting because when you see the quotes or the phrases that people hang onto, I think it tells you something about the person. And I think that sounds a lot like you.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Oh.
Rhonda Mawhood: I think it really does. So that's wonderful. Thank you, Mrs. Brenda. Let me see if have— Probably, I can do that on my own.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Oh, another one that I like is Rabbi Ben Ezra. "Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be, the last of life of which the first was made. Our times are in His hands who said a whole, I plan. Youth shows but half, see all, trust God, see all and not be afraid." That's from Rabbi Ben Ezra.
Rhonda Mawhood: Okay.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Tennyson.
Rhonda Mawhood: We have one more form, which is as you know, these tapes are going to be deposited in the archive at Perkins Library, at Duke University, and also in the local archive.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: And so in order—
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: I have to sign this to let you know that I give you my permission to use them.
Rhonda Mawhood: Yes, ma'am.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: Otherwise we can't use them. So I have two separate forms here. One is the interview agreement, which simply says there are no restrictions. You just contribute this and anyone can use it. Then this one allows for restrictions, which could include, for example, someone needing to get your permission to quote you. That would be probably one of the more common ones.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, I haven't told you anything that is a secret.
Rhonda Mawhood: I see. So in that case, you wouldn't mind signing this one without restrictions, ma'am. Thank you. So, I have to initial here. If you could put your initials here, please. And then sign there.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Initials here?
Rhonda Mawhood: Yes, ma'am. Thank you. You were mentioning earlier that you enjoyed traveling and that we haven't spoken about your traveling. Is this something that you've started recently—
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: No.
Rhonda Mawhood: — or have you traveled for a long time?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: No, I started traveling before I retired.
Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, I had done some since I retired. My first overseas trip was while I was teaching. I went to London with a group of teachers. We were visiting the British infant schools and that was an educational tour. And we went to London and we visited the infant schools in Oxford. And I have been back to London twice since then. And I went— My last trip to London was during the time when Kurt, my nephew, who was the mayor, was on his Rhodes in Oxford. But at the time that I went, it was during the Easter vacation and he was on vacation. He was over on the continent traveling like the students do, you know the knapsacks.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: But, I went to his dormitory and I asked the person who was in charge, I told him who I was. And, of course he knew Kurt and all. I said, "Well, would it be possible for me to just take a look at his room?" And he said, "No, that that's not permitted." So I said, "Well, if I left something for him, could I be assured that he would receive it?" So he said "Yes, yes indeed." So I decided just to take a chance. And so I left him some money and he got it.
Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, good.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. He sure did. I decided to take a chance. I knew if he got it, he could use it. So he received it. Then the next trip that I took to Europe was another educational tour. And we went to Holland. And I went to France. And let's see, where else did we go? Went to Switzerland. And then we came back to London and came back to the States from Heathrow. One of the most— Now, I went to London another time, but that was when I visited the Durante's in Nigeria. And I went alone. This time, it wasn't a tour, I went alone.
Rhonda Mawhood: Around what year?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: I went to— Tell me, what year was that? Gee, I don't remember what year that was. It was the year that they came back to— The year that they came back to the States. And it was shortly before John died, and John died in '63. So, it must have been '61 or '62. Because I knew he had not been dead long when I came back. And I traveled alone. It was in the summer. And I went to New York and I flew from New York to— We had to stop before we got to Monrovia.
Rhonda Mawhood: Mm—hmm.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: I've forgotten where that was. But it was interesting. I got on that plane in Kennedy. I was the only person in the plane. The only person. And that was 747, with all this huge crew. But I'll have— When we made the first stop, it was not in Monrovia, it was, gosh, what was the name of that place that we stopped? The first place we stopped, it was in Africa. And that plane filled with people from all over everywhere. And I never will forget the little lady, she was an Indian lady, I believe. And she sat next to me and she wasn't wearing any shoes. And she curled up on that seat and her head was on the outside and her feet were toward me. And I had to sleep all night on that bed with that lady curled up beside me with her feet almost in my face. I never will forget it.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Well, I stopped in Monrovia because I had a friend who was in the Peace Corps there. And I stayed in Monrovia a couple of days. And they took me around and showed me all around. But they gave me a party on the night that they took me on a tour. And I never will forget that. See, I still had jet lag and I hadn't recovered. And they had people from the city of Monrovia to come in and met me. I mean, all these African dignitaries and everything. But, you know I went out like a light during that. And when I woke up, it was the next day and I was in bed. They had taken me to bed. They said I just went out just like that.
Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. And then I went from there and I was still traveling alone.
Rhonda Mawhood: Nice.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: I went from there to Ghana. And I was in Ghana. I had a friend who was teaching in Ghana, and I visited her for a couple of days and then I went on to Nigeria where the Durantes met me at the airport. And I stayed there about the week and then they were coming home on a furlough. And we came— So we traveled together. And we came from Lagos, Nigeria. And we flew across the desert to— Let's see, where was the first place we stopped? First place we stopped was— It wasn't Italy. Oh, it was, help me with my geography.
Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. In Spain?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: In Spain, yeah. Now what's the capital?
Rhonda Mawhood: Of Spain? Madrid.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Madrid. Okay. Madrid. That's where we were. And the most interesting thing, we were on a shopping tour in Madrid and the Durantes ran into a couple whom they had known, a couple who had taught as a Lagos in Nigeria. And see, now, we left there and we went from there to Athens and from Athens to Rome and from Rome to— Let's see, where is that place? Someplace in Germany. It was some little place in Germany. And I remember that because we took a tour and we went up into the area where the play, the Passion play is. And of course the Passion play wasn't not there, but we got to see the site. And we were on a tour and we stopped at various places coming back on the way back to where we started.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: And we Rose Durante, she loves to shop. And we decided that the two of us stopped at a hotel and the merits would tell you, this is the time we're going to be leaving and this is the time we're going to be having lunch. And if you go shopping, just don't forget when we are leaving. So we walked into the little town and we did some shopping. So when we started back, we made a wrong turn. We went into a store and when we came out the store, we made the wrong turn. So there we were walking, we didn't see any sign of our bus or hotel or anything. So I said, "It must be—" We saw an Exxon station, it was called, Esso then, and in this little German town we saw this Esso station. I said, "I know somebody there must speak English."
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: So we went answer to the Esso station. And sure enough, there was a young lady in there who was in charge and she spoke English. So we told her that we were lost and what our problem was. And we didn't even know the name of the hotel where the bus was. So we told her that what we would like to do was to have her call us a cab and we would like the cab just to take us around to every hotel in that town until we found our bus. And that's what she did. And that's what happened. And we didn't know the name of the hotel, but she told the bus driver, or the taxi driver, what our problem was. So he would take us from one hotel to another and we never did see a bus. So we were coming out of one hotel, we were going down the road and we saw the sign with the name of this hotel on it. It wasn't the hotel, but it was the name of something. Maybe was some little town. But anyway, it was the name of this hotel and we recognized it.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: And so we said, "There it is, there it is." And neither one of us could speak German, but we tried. And so he said— But he knew what we were talking about because he knew what the hotel was when he saw the name. So he called a name and we said "Yes, yes." And so he took us to the hotel and there was the bus. And they waited on us. And Dr. Durante, he didn't go with them. He was in the sitting in the bus, and he didn't come out or anything. We got him. I said, "You didn't even miss us." He said, "Oh, I knew you all would be back. I knew you ladies were shopping." Oh, dear. Well, that was really something.
Rhonda Mawhood: It sounds like you had fun.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Yeah, we enjoyed that. And we came back by way of London. Came back. Then my next travels where after I retired and since I had retired, I had been to China, to Russia, to Alaska, to— See where was— Oh, to South America. And the last trip that I took out of the country was in Australia and New Zealand. And I have a friend who lives around the corner who also is a retired educator and we traveled together, and we said we wanted to go to Scandinavia next. But things started getting a little tense over in Europe and we decided we'd wait a little while. We still say we going, I don't know whether we will or not. We probably won't.
Rhonda Mawhood: Sounds like it's about the only place you haven't been.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Oh yes. There are a lot of places I have. Oh. But the most interesting place that Mildred and I went and we went, not because we had not been to London before, because I'd been to London at least three times and she'd been more than once. But we wanted to travel on the QE2 and the Concord and we took one of those trips.
Rhonda Mawhood: The Concord too?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Yes, indeed. We flew to Kennedy and that's where we got— And we got a cab to the landing place where we boarded the QE2 and we sailed on the QE2 to London, five days. We stayed in London five days and we came back on the Concord, four hours. Well, that was one exciting— I would like to take that trip again.
Rhonda Mawhood: That sounds wonderful.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Rhonda Mawhood: Great time?
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Oh, I'd like to travel on the QE2 again. It's a magnificent ship.
Rhonda Mawhood: I'd like to have those kinds of experiences one day too. One day.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Oh you can, if you want to.
Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: Make up a mind.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Mm-hmm.
Rhonda Mawhood: Well—
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: Now I want to show you some of my books.
Rhonda Mawhood: Yes, ma'am.
Dr. Elizabeth Randolph: My family books.