Rhonda Mawhood: —City? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yes. Rhonda Mawhood: In this James City, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: In this, yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Were your parents from here? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yes. Rhonda Mawhood: Can you tell me about your parents, where they were born, what they— Aaron Baker Boyd: They were born here. Rhonda Mawhood: Was that in this James City or the old James City that used to exist? Aaron Baker Boyd: Perhaps they were born in the old James City. Rhonda Mawhood: So how far back does your family go in this area, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: We go back to the old James City. Rhonda Mawhood: And your grandparents, do you know— Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: —about them, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Mm-hmm. Rhonda Mawhood: Where were they born, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: James City. Rhonda Mawhood: Were your grandparents born free, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Beg your pardon? Rhonda Mawhood: Were your grandparents born free? Were they free persons? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Your grandparents? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you know your grandparents when you were growing up? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, as I was growing up. Yeah, I knew them. Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of things did you do with your grandparents? Aaron Baker Boyd: I knew my grandmother on mother's side. I knew my grandmother on my father's side. So I knowed all of them. My father, he runned some kind of market. He was selling vegetables and stuff. They tell me he got on The Neuse, the boat that's called The Neuse. I think the boat run from here to Norfolk, and the boat took him away. Rhonda Mawhood: The boat took him away? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. But see, he was supposed to get on the boat and selling and get back off, but he got on The Neuse and didn't get off. Rhonda Mawhood: How old were you when that happened, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I wasn't born. I heard about that. I was told about that from him. I'd hear them speak about it. Rhonda Mawhood: So that was, I'm sorry, your grandfather who was— Aaron Baker Boyd: My father. Rhonda Mawhood: Your father? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: So your mother was expecting you then, or— Aaron Baker Boyd: No, it was some more older than me. Some more older than I was. Rhonda Mawhood: So your father got on the boat at that point, and did he manage to come back? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, he did? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, he came back. Rhonda Mawhood: So he told you about this? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. I'd often hear him talk about it. Rhonda Mawhood: How did he get back here? Aaron Baker Boyd: See, the boat come backward and forward. So he come back on the next day. Rhonda Mawhood: What about your mother, sir? What kind of work did she do? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, she used to do some little housework for some people. Rhonda Mawhood: Some White people? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right, right. Rhonda Mawhood: Where did she go to do this work, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: New Bern. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. How did she get there when she had to go to work? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, they had horses and carts and all like that and some cars. You go right across the bridge, the bridge across there. Rhonda Mawhood: Did she travel by herself or with other women? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, it would be two or three ahead of them going there that way. Rhonda Mawhood: How many children were there in your family? How many brothers and sisters did you have, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I can account for three boys, and I had one sister. Then they had some dead. I don't know how many there were. Pardon me. My brother would carry me outdoors. A snake bit him in the water. He was soft crabbing, and he didn't want to carry me outdoors. He was older than I was. I was the baby then. But I remember them talking about it. A snake bit him in the water. Rhonda Mawhood: And what happened? Aaron Baker Boyd: He died. Rhonda Mawhood: He died. How old was he, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I don't know because I was a baby. He kept me outdoors. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you fish also—or crab also? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't. No. Rhonda Mawhood: Why not? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I didn't like the water too much. Rhonda Mawhood: Why didn't you like the water? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I was scared of the snakes, too. That's why I didn't like the water. Rhonda Mawhood: I can understand that. So when you were growing up, did people tell you stories about the history of James City? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, yeah, I know some of it about their living quarter and all like that there. James City was an industrial place. They had four mills over there, two sawmills and one called planting mill and then a heading mill they had over there. That's how the people over there would get their living. James City was industrial. People from New Bern was coming over here for work. Some of them would ride bicycles over there to work and all like that. James City was industrial. Then it was a farm over here called Bray's Farm. Rhonda Mawhood: Bray's Farm? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Dixon. Rhonda Mawhood: Dixon? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Dixon was the owner? Aaron Baker Boyd: It was a farm. One farm. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you know people who worked in the mills? Aaron Baker Boyd: Sure. I had an uncle. He worked out there. He worked out there to Sanders Lumber Company. He worked there. My father, he worked to a heading mill called Adams Cooper Company that was in James City. All them four mills was in James City. Also, we had a Post Office in there. Now, the Post Office has been changed about three or four times. The Blacks was running the Post Office, and they come in this area. It was in here twice. Then it left from here, and it went down to a place called Brentson down there. So actually, James City do need a Post Office. It need one. Rhonda Mawhood: [indistinct 00:07:06] right now. Aaron Baker Boyd: They don't have one. They need a sub Post Office because you have to go way down there to mail a package or either go to New Bern. We really need a Post Office. Rhonda Mawhood: There was a Post Office here when you were growing up, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Since I've been grown, it's been moved three times. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you know Black people who worked in the Post Office when you were growing up, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I know one. Emma Henderson, she used to run the sub Post Office right out there on the highway. So I think that time it left. Then it went to a lady named Dot Hargett, and she runned it right out here. Next time it went down to Brentson. So it come back again up here, and some people were running it. It closed out. So don't have no Post Office. We don't have no PostOoffice. But James City's on the map. I'll tell you that. It's on the map. Aaron Baker Boyd: It's about one of the oldest place in eastern North Carolina, one of the oldest. I think the place you call Bath, I believe, somewhere down in the country, I believe it's the oldest. But James City is something that is from the older. It's on the map. Rhonda Mawhood: Well, and your family is one of the old families here. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: You told me that your grandparents were born free. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Do you know how far back that goes in your family, this freedom? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I don't. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you spend time with your two grandmothers when you were growing up, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yes, I did. Because my grandmother, I know she used to go to New Bern selling vegetable and stuff, towed the basket up on her head and selling vegetable. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you ever go with her into New Bern? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't. Rhonda Mawhood: But you saw her with the basket of vegetables on her head? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, I know that she would come out with it. Rhonda Mawhood: Did she teach you how to put a basket on your head? Aaron Baker Boyd: I would see her out there. I couldn't see how they could carry them basket on the head without touching it. They could sit that basket on their head [indistinct 00:09:47]. Rhonda Mawhood: Did she tell you how she learned to do that? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, she did not. Rhonda Mawhood: Your other grandmother, what kind of work did she do? Aaron Baker Boyd: My other grandmother, my mother's side, she worked to a restaurant. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Where was the restaurant, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: In New Bern. Her name was Charity Moore, and she worked to a restaurant in New Bern. Rhonda Mawhood: Chatty Moore? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What did she do in the restaurant, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I think she was a salesman because she was behind the counter, because I know I used to go in there sometime and see her. Rhonda Mawhood: Was it a restaurant mostly for Black people or mostly for White people? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, it was set up for White people, but I think Black people could go in there and get something though. I ain't never known. One place I went to one time, they wouldn't serve Black. If they serve you, you had to go in the back. That was in Little Washington. Rhonda Mawhood: In Little Washington? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. That was before the civil rights movement come through here. Also, in New Bern, it was a Cresses store and McClellan. To Cresses, they wouldn't want to serve Blacks at the counter, and McClellan, they [indistinct 00:11:31] and they took all Cresses. And then Cresses wanted to open up, but the Black didn't never go back to them, and they went out business. They went out of business. Rhonda Mawhood: That's in the 1960s? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Before the 1960s, before the Civil Rights movement, do you remember people talking about the fact that they couldn't get served in the restaurants, things like that? Aaron Baker Boyd: Did I hear them talking about they couldn't served? Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Aaron Baker Boyd: Sure. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of things would they say about it? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, they just wouldn't serve us because they wouldn't even allow you to come in there. Rhonda Mawhood: Do you remember Black people themselves talking about this, about what they thought of that? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I mean they didn't think it was right, but it wasn't nothing that could do about it. I was working at the Navy base in Cherry Point. When I went there, they had a wall between the White on one side, the Black on the other. So they were getting ready to let it down. So they soon let it down. That's when they had Black water and White water. That was during the time the civil right movement went through because we come a long ways. Aaron Baker Boyd: But the dream haven't ended yet. It never will end. I don't think it never will end, the dream. But the dreamer, he went on. That was Martin Luther King. But we come a long way. Rhonda Mawhood: I'd like to talk about that a bit more later. But I'd like to ask you, Mr. Boyd, about the neighborhood you grew up in. What was your neighborhood like, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Nice, quiet neighborhood because we had less violence over here and stuff. They was in New Bern, and they had all the law enforcement there. We don't have no law enforcement here. We have to call the law if anything would happen. But it's been less crimes and stuff in James City. James City been quiet. That was before. I think I seen more violence since television been on than ever before. That's right. Rhonda Mawhood: What kind of work did your neighbors do when you were growing up, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, they worked to the mill industry. Then the women, they done laundry for White folks. There was a man going around would pick up the clothes named John Lee. He had a horse and cart. I think he would get about 35 cent a week, hauling them baskets of clothes back to the White folk. Rhonda Mawhood: This is a Black man who's doing the hauling? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. So we come from a long way. But there's still farther to go because I say together we stand and divided we'll fall. I quote this from the Bible. I think we first need to, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then all the other things be added unto thee." That's what I say. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you and your parents read the Bible? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. My father, he was a preacher, stood at the Methodist church right across the field over there. My mother, she was over here in this church right here. She was a Baptist. My father was a Methodist. My father's people was Methodist, but my mother's people were Baptist. Rhonda Mawhood: Which church did you go to, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: The Baptist church. Rhonda Mawhood: And your brothers and sister? Aaron Baker Boyd: Some of them split. Some went where my father was at. I went where my mother was there. So about 35 years I've been a deacon at this church here. Rhonda Mawhood: The same church that you grew up in? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: What's the name of that church? Aaron Baker Boyd: Pilgrim Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. Rhonda Mawhood: Pilgrim Chapel. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you enjoy going to church when you were a little boy? Aaron Baker Boyd: Sure. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What did you like about it, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I liked the Spirit that they had in the church. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you feel the Spirit yourself? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yes. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: How old were you when you first remember feeling the Spirit? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, when I was converted. Rhonda Mawhood: When were you converted, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I was about 12 years old I think it was. Rhonda Mawhood: If you don't mind me asking, what kind of a difference did you feel once you felt the Spirit and when you were converted? What was different about the way you felt from before? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I just felt just lifted up, just lifted up. Rhonda Mawhood: Were you baptized then, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I was baptized. Rhonda Mawhood: Where were you baptized? Aaron Baker Boyd: I was baptized down here in the river. Rhonda Mawhood: The Trent River? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, down the Neuse. Rhonda Mawhood: The Neuse River? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: What was your baptism like? What was that day like? Do you remember? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I don't. Rhonda Mawhood: Did your family ever go to revivals during— Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. We had revival. All the churches over here had revival. There was four churches over here. All of them had revivals because they're like, "We supposed to have revivals now starting the 14th of September." So we had it every year. Rhonda Mawhood: What were the revivals like when you were growing up? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, they had a evangelist come there, conduct the revival, and singing and shouting and everything. Rhonda Mawhood: How long did they go on for? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, they'd take in 7:00 or 7:30. From 7:00 to 7:30, prayer service. Then the minister would come and preach. I think we'd get out about 9:00, sometimes 10:00, according to how the Spirit was in there. Rhonda Mawhood: Did people come from other places? Aaron Baker Boyd: Other places, yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Do you remember there being a lot of people around? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Where did they stay when they came? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, they'd go back home. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, okay. Aaron Baker Boyd: They'd go back home. It wasn't too far for them. They'd go back home. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you and your family go to revivals in other towns? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Other churches and their services. There's five churches in this area. Rhonda Mawhood: Did Baptists stay at Baptist revivals or would people go to the Methodist church revival sometimes? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: So they would switch? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. So a fellowship? Aaron Baker Boyd: Fellowship, right. Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of things did you do for fun when you were growing up, mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: Beg your pardon? Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of things did you do for fun when you were growing up? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I'd shoot marble, fly kites, and all that kind of stuff like that. Rhonda Mawhood: Where was it that you went to school, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: James City School over here. Rhonda Mawhood: How many rooms were there in your school, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I disremember. I won't say because I disremember how many rooms there were. Rhonda Mawhood: But there was more than one? Aaron Baker Boyd: More than one, yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: All right. Are there any of your teachers whose memories have stayed with you? Aaron Baker Boyd: I remember Ms. Hawkins and— Rhonda Mawhood: Hawkins? Aaron Baker Boyd: —Ms. White. I remember the principal, Professor Chief. I can't remember them all. Rhonda Mawhood: What is it that you remember about these people, sir? About your teachers and the principal? Aaron Baker Boyd: What year? Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, either Ms. White, Ms. Hawkins, the principal. Aaron Baker Boyd: Another one named Ms. Alexander. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Were there a lot of children in the neighborhood where you grew up? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: How did you get to school when you went? Aaron Baker Boyd: You walked there. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you and your friends walk together? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: How long did it take you to get to school? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, it wouldn't take about 15 or 20 minutes. Rhonda Mawhood: You'd walk along there together? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: How far did you go in school, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: I got to the 3rd grade. I went to work. My father, during the time of the Depression, I went to help him out. He was older, and I kind of dropped out. Rhonda Mawhood: How old were you then, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Let me see. I think I was around about 18 years old or something like that, 15. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What kind of work did you do then, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I worked to the fertilizer house down there a little bit. He didn't want me to work down there, my father didn't. But I was doing trying to help. Then they kept on. I worked to [indistinct 00:22:37] plant in New Bern. Then next time I was at Cherry Point Marine Base. Rhonda Mawhood: Was it Fred Law house that you worked, did you say? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Down there. Down there. Rhonda Mawhood: Now, why didn't your father want you working there? Aaron Baker Boyd: He didn't want me to work there. Rhonda Mawhood: Why not? Aaron Baker Boyd: He felt like it was too much for me. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. What kind of work were you doing, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, it was working in the fertilizer. Barges come up down there— Rhonda Mawhood: Fertilizer. Aaron Baker Boyd: —and they unloading the stuff off the barges. Rhonda Mawhood: So that's a lot of real— Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: —heavy work. Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Did you like that work that you were doing there with fertilizer? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't like it, but I did it. But I soon got away. I didn't stay there too long. I didn't like it, but I did it. Rhonda Mawhood: And then you went to the nail plant? Aaron Baker Boyd: [indistinct 00:23:32] plant. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. What were you doing there, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I was working to a machine that rolled this [indistinct 00:23:41] off a log and cut it off. I was pulling it back. I was pulling it back just like that. Rhonda Mawhood: It sounds like you had to be careful doing that work with big machines. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you know anybody who got hurt doing work? Aaron Baker Boyd: No. I got hurt there. But I was running the machine then when I got hurt. There it is right there, that finger. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, my goodness. Aaron Baker Boyd: It got hung up in a cogwheel. Rhonda Mawhood: Third finger on your right hand. What happened to it, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: It was a wheel turned over like that, and it got caught up in it. Rhonda Mawhood: So what happened when your finger got caught? What did you do? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, somebody went up there and cut the machine right off, and it stopped. Rhonda Mawhood: Who saw to your finger? Who looked after your finger? Aaron Baker Boyd: It was a doctor in town. Dr. Duffy, I think it was. Rhonda Mawhood: Duffrin? Aaron Baker Boyd: Duffy. Rhonda Mawhood: Duffy? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: So you went to him? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. The company sent me there. Rhonda Mawhood: The company sent you. Did they pay for it? Aaron Baker Boyd: They paid for it. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. And then did you have to take time off work? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: You did? How long did you stop, sir, stop work? Aaron Baker Boyd: I was off about two or three months, two months. Rhonda Mawhood: Did they pay you at all for that time? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Compensation. Rhonda Mawhood: Worker's compensation? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: And then you went back to that job? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, I went back. Rhonda Mawhood: How did you feel about it when you went back? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I felt all right about it, but—see, I was messing around the machine, and that's how I got into it with the machine. But I would be on the machine, and you take and pulling it back like that. But when I got this here hurt, I was operating the machine. I was a operator. I was just trying to learn how to operate it, rather. Rhonda Mawhood: So you went back to the same machine after you went back to work? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, but I didn't operate it. I went back there. Rhonda Mawhood: And then you told me that you went to work at Cherry Point. Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: What kind of work were you doing there, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: When I first went there I was— Rhonda Mawhood: Excuse me. Aaron Baker Boyd: —a laborer. And then I went to a helper, and I left from there. Before I come out of there, I was a supervisor. I didn't know how I got it, but I got it. I got it from experience. I made 85, and that was passing mark. Rhonda Mawhood: On a test? Aaron Baker Boyd: On a test. 85. Rhonda Mawhood: What kind of test did you have to take, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Experience. They went from my experience because I was working in a parcel post cage, just like you get packages in the Post Office. I was handling them packages. So up top side where all the offices and things at, you had to write up the papers. The papers go up there. So I was working in this parcel post cage with a White fellow. Aaron Baker Boyd: I finally started putting my name on the invoice, and the invoice would go upstairs. Then they wanted to know who I was. So they took me from the experience, and that's how I got it. Rhonda Mawhood: They saw that you had been sending a lot of packages? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right, right. Rhonda Mawhood: What gave you the idea to start putting your name down, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I said I might get somewhere, and I did. So yeah, before I come out of Cherry Point, that's when I made supervisor. I made a supervisor. I made 85 on supervisor. Rhonda Mawhood: About when was it that you started working at Cherry Point, sir, about what year? Aaron Baker Boyd: '45. Rhonda Mawhood: '45. Aaron Baker Boyd: I stayed there 30 years and four months. Rhonda Mawhood: So you started working there just before—had the war finished when you started or was it just— Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Did you know men who went away to war during the Second World War? Aaron Baker Boyd: Do I know any? Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm. Aaron Baker Boyd: I had a brother-in-law was in there. Two brother-in-laws was in there. Rhonda Mawhood: What do you remember about the Second World War, you yourself, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I don't remember too much about it. I only remember when they were coming back. Rhonda Mawhood: What was that like when they came back? Aaron Baker Boyd: What was it like? Rhonda Mawhood: Yes, sir. When these men came back from the war? Aaron Baker Boyd: It was a happy time. The church bells were ringing and everything. Rhonda Mawhood: Out of the different jobs that you've told me that you had, which one did you like the best, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, one job I had, I was at the USO. I liked that. That where the Marines and the sailors and all them, they would come in on the weekend, and I was working at that. Then that's when I went to the [indistinct 00:29:47] plant. I liked that job, but I didn't stay ;are too long. Rhonda Mawhood: That's the job where you got hurt, too? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. When you were growing up in James City, sir, where did your family do their shopping? Where did they get their food and things like that? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, there was a store right out there on this highway called Pender Store. That where we would shop at. Then in James City, it was shopping places in James City, Solomon Phillips, Amos Williams. That's where they was doing the shopping. Rhonda Mawhood: Were these Black people who owned the stores? Aaron Baker Boyd: Black people. Right, Black people. Rhonda Mawhood: So were most of the businesses that you and your family went to owned by Black people? Aaron Baker Boyd: Black people, right. Unless they were clothing and shoes and stuff like that. Rhonda Mawhood: In that case, it would be White people? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Right. Rhonda Mawhood: Who made the decisions in your family when you were growing up? Who made the decisions about things like how to spend money? Aaron Baker Boyd: I think they made their own decision. Rhonda Mawhood: Your mother and father, do you think they made them together? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Right. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you go to the stores with your parents? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't. Rhonda Mawhood: So they went? Aaron Baker Boyd: Uh-huh. I know I used to go to meet my father when he'd knock off from work, I mean especially Saturday. I'd help to pick up the food. There was barbershop in New Bern, and I used to get my hair cut at a barbershop in New Bern. Rhonda Mawhood: What was that like, the barbershop in New Bern? Aaron Baker Boyd: What was it like? Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm. Aaron Baker Boyd: It was like most of them barbershops right now. It was. Rhonda Mawhood: Well, you see, being a woman and being a White woman, I haven't been in too many barbershops— Aaron Baker Boyd: No. Rhonda Mawhood: —especially because men go in there, right? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Uh-huh. Rhonda Mawhood: So can you tell me what the barbershop was like a little bit? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, just go there in the chair and they cut your hair and shape it, any cut and style you wanted. Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of things would men talk about in the barbershop? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, just some ordinary things they talk about. Rhonda Mawhood: Do they talk about the women in the barbershop? Aaron Baker Boyd: Sometimes, yes, sometimes about women. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: I've been told that men would play checkers. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Does that sound right to you? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. I've also been told that sometimes there would be some gambling going on in the barbershop, numbers. Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I never seen it. Rhonda Mawhood: You've never seen that? Okay. Aaron Baker Boyd: No. Rhonda Mawhood: Well, neither have I. I've been told, but I don't know. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Perhaps it is, but I've never seen it, not in barbershops that I've been into. Rhonda Mawhood: Were there any parts of town that you weren't allowed to go to when you were growing up, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: No. Rhonda Mawhood: No? Aaron Baker Boyd: Mm-mm. I mean maybe some store or restaurant or something like that. But for going a different part of town, you could go anywhere you want to go. Rhonda Mawhood: So your parents didn't say to you, "You can't go to this place?" Aaron Baker Boyd: No. No, no. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Aaron Baker Boyd: Because I used to go to New Bern a lot of times and I used to tell my wife about places that I knew were downtown, and she didn't know nothing about them. I was just a little bit older than she was, but she was old enough to know. But she said she didn't have no business downtown, and that's why she didn't know nothing about them places. But I told her I used to go down there because I know my daddy had a special place that he bought my shoes from, Sam Littman and Son. Rhonda Mawhood: Sam Littman? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. My mother's shoes, too. Looked like that was the only place my mother could get shoes at for to fit her feet. So I know a whole lot about downtown. Had a Black shoe shop down there, John Haven. Rhonda Mawhood: John Hayward? Aaron Baker Boyd: Haven. Haven. Rhonda Mawhood: Haven. I see. Thank you. Aaron Baker Boyd: Then there was a tailor downtown, Richard Sawyer, a tailor downtown. Rhonda Mawhood: This is downtown New Bern? Aaron Baker Boyd: Downtown New Bern, yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Mr. Sawyer was a Black man? Aaron Baker Boyd: Black man. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Would you go to him for clothes? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I didn't go to him for clothes. Rhonda Mawhood: Where did you and your family get your clothes, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, we bought most of our stuff from Sam Littman and Son. Rhonda Mawhood: Mr. Littman, what kind of a man was he? Aaron Baker Boyd: He was Jewish. Rhonda Mawhood: He was Jewish. Why did your family go to Mr. Littman in particular? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, it was one of the oldest stores in New Bern, and it looked like that's the only place that he could find something like a good comfortable shoe for my mother. Rhonda Mawhood: Were your mother's feet kind of big? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Like mine. I have big feet, too. I have a hard time, too. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. Just like these things here, that's a new one there. Rhonda Mawhood: This is a painting that you have of New Bern? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: That's pretty. It looks like maybe it was done from an old photograph. Aaron Baker Boyd: That's the women's club. Rhonda Mawhood: Women's club. Aaron Baker Boyd: That's in New Bern. Rhonda Mawhood: Very nice painting. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Thank you, Mr. Boyd. Aaron Baker Boyd: That's downtown on Pilot Street. They had streetcars running through there. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, my. Aaron Baker Boyd: I knew about that because there's a streetcar running there. That's the Post Office, I mean the City Hall. Rhonda Mawhood: City Hall. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. That was the downtown clock. Rhonda Mawhood: Is the clock still there, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yes. The clock is still there. Rhonda Mawhood: I'll have to look for it next time I'm down there. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Were your parents members of any organizations or clubs? Aaron Baker Boyd: My father was a Mason, and my mother, they had another organization called the Pound Society. Rhonda Mawhood: The Pound Society? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. You have to carry a pound of meat, a pound of anything. Sometimes it was a can of stuff. I think it was on every Wednesday night, they would meat in a church. They didn't have no other place, so they met in a church. That was the Pound Society. Rhonda Mawhood: Would they bring their pounds to the meeting? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, bring the pound to the meeting. That was for to give to somebody who was sick. They belong in the Pound Society. Rhonda Mawhood: Was your mother involved in establishing this organization? Was she one of the first members, or did she join? Aaron Baker Boyd: She joined. Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Were there a lot of organizations like that that would do charity or help people? Aaron Baker Boyd: They had another one called Relief Society. Relief Society. Rhonda Mawhood: What kinds of things would they do? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, you pay your dues, so much dues. If you die, it would be so much paid to your burial. I think that sprung up from your church. I think it was. Rhonda Mawhood: So it's like insurance? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Did your parents participate in that, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: When they passed on, did the society pay? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Were your parents, do you know if they were ever members of the NAACP, for example? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, they weren't. Rhonda Mawhood: They weren't. Okay. Did you join the NAACP, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I did not. Rhonda Mawhood: You mentioned your wife just a few minutes ago. How did you meet your wife, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: Her home was in New Bern, but she was born in Hyde County. She would come from New Bern over here and down to the beach, and that where I'd meet her at. Rhonda Mawhood: What was the name of the beach that you met her at? Aaron Baker Boyd: Let me see. The lady who would run the beach was named Daisy Bryant. She was the one running the beach. Then Ransom and Charleston Robinson run the beach, also. So that's where we would go at. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you go to the beach as a child or was it when you were older? Aaron Baker Boyd: When I was a child and after I got grown up. Rhonda Mawhood: Did your parents take you there? Aaron Baker Boyd: No. They didn't. Rhonda Mawhood: So just kids would go? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. That sounds like fun. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: What was there to do at the beach? Aaron Baker Boyd: Going swimming, then they'd have a little dance in the dance hall. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. You told me that you had one sister? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Is that right? Did your sister also go to the beach? Aaron Baker Boyd: No. Rhonda Mawhood: No? Aaron Baker Boyd: Mm-mm. Rhonda Mawhood: Was it because she didn't want to go or she wasn't allowed? Aaron Baker Boyd: I guess because she didn't want to go. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. What was that like having one girl in the house, one sister? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I don't know. Mostly what my mother had were boys, and some died. Rhonda Mawhood: Did you— Aaron Baker Boyd: But— Rhonda Mawhood: I'm sorry? Aaron Baker Boyd: They had some died, more boys because they had had so many Johns till they named one John IV. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, really? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, John IV, John II, John III, John the IV. That's my baby brother. he's in Harlem, New York, right now. Rhonda Mawhood: He's John IV? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Were you born at home, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. I was born down there on the riverfront down there. Rhonda Mawhood: The house you were lived in, was there a street name? What street was it on? Aaron Baker Boyd: The street—after too long, it been named. It was Wales Street where I was born at, on Wales Street. Rhonda Mawhood: Wales Street. I'd like to come back to your wife. Aaron Baker Boyd: Okay. Rhonda Mawhood: When was it that you married, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: I got married September 30, 1943. Rhonda Mawhood: May I ask you how old you were when you got married, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I think I was 35. Rhonda Mawhood: 35? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: So you waited a while? Aaron Baker Boyd: Waited a while because my father said—he even told the girl when I married. He said, "I want my son to marry somebody who's going to treat him right." So I just stayed out there a long time before I got married. Rhonda Mawhood: So you waited to find someone who would treat you right? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. I think she treated me all right. She been dead about eight years. Rhonda Mawhood: Oh, I'm sorry. Aaron Baker Boyd: I ain't got married no more. Rhonda Mawhood: What was it that you liked about her that made— Aaron Baker Boyd: Huh? Rhonda Mawhood: What was it that you liked about your wife when you met her that made you think maybe she'd treat you right? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, I liked her attitude and the way she conduct herself. I felt like that she would make me a good wife. Rhonda Mawhood: Could I ask, how was it that she did conduct herself? What kinds of qualities did she have that you admired? Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, she was working at a church. Then she joined our church. She was a member of the pastor aid in church. Rhonda Mawhood: So she was a churchgoing woman? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: And you liked that? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: Did your father give you any advice on how to be a good husband or a good man? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Yeah. He often would talk to us about it. He said, "I want all my children so they'll be working in the church." And then before he died, he said that, well, he wanted us to be Mason. He said, "Well, I got everything that I wanted." Rhonda Mawhood: So you became a Mason? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Rhonda Mawhood: When did you join the Masons, sir? Aaron Baker Boyd: I forgot what year it was, but I know I joined it. Rhonda Mawhood: Were you in your 20s and 30s? Aaron Baker Boyd: Right. Right. Rhonda Mawhood: In your 20s? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Right. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Was your father still a member when you joined? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Well, he had been a Mason a long time. Rhonda Mawhood: Which lodge, I guess, were you a member of? Aaron Baker Boyd: JM Hicks Masonic Lodge. Rhonda Mawhood: JM Hicks. Okay. I don't know how much you're going to tell me, but what kinds of things would Masons be involved in doing? Aaron Baker Boyd: What kinds of thing? Rhonda Mawhood: Mm-hmm. Aaron Baker Boyd: Well, they would have their regular communication at a meeting and go through with their rituals and stuff. But I cannot tell you all what they did. Rhonda Mawhood: The secret rituals. Wow. Well, maybe I could ask you what kinds of qualities Masons would look for in a man who wanted to become a Mason. What— Aaron Baker Boyd: He had to have the qualification for to be one. He had to be a upright man. Rhonda Mawhood: An upright man? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, to become a Mason. You just couldn't get in there any kind of way. Rhonda Mawhood: What kind— Aaron Baker Boyd: You had stand inspection to get in there. Rhonda Mawhood: You had to stand inspection. What kinds of things would make a man not an upright man, would disqualify a man from the Masons? Aaron Baker Boyd: Maybe a drunk, maybe a man living in adultery, something like that. So them would be some of the things. Rhonda Mawhood: So these also were churchgoing men? Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah. Churchgoing. Rhonda Mawhood: Okay. Aaron Baker Boyd: Yeah, that's what it would be. Rhonda Mawhood: Who were you a member of any other organizations, Mr. Boyd? Aaron Baker Boyd: No, I wasn't. I went to church. Rhonda Mawhood: Right. Very active in the church. You say that you've been a deacon for—