Clarice Sharp interview recording, 1995 August 03
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| Clarice Sharp | — Williams—Shaw and I was born in Norfolk, Virginia, August 31st, 1933. | 0:01 |
| Blair Murphy | And what was it like in that community when you were growing up? | 0:16 |
| Clarice Sharp | Well, everything was just one small community. I mean, well you lived in neighborhoods and more or less the people that lived in that particular neighborhood associated together. At that time— | 0:20 |
| Blair Murphy | Could we have the name of your neighborhood? | 0:38 |
| Clarice Sharp | I lived in Huntersville, that's where I was born. But you seldom visited outside of your neighborhood. I had some friends who might live a little bit further by meeting them through church, but more or less you socialized in your area and things of that nature. And during that time, of course, all professions lived up and down the street. You had a doctor here, undertaker here, teacher there, and domestic here. So it was this one big community, which made it real enjoyable because you got to see all types of people and you didn't think that anybody was better than anybody else because you were all living in similar type houses and you were all living on one street or two streets in the same. | 0:39 |
| Clarice Sharp | So that made it very nice and you really didn't think that much about the differences until you went someplace else. And during the time we had friends that lived in New York, so a lot of times we visit back and forth and then that's when you knew, "Well, things a little different here." Like going to the movie, we had our own movies on Church Street, and of course everywhere you went, people always knew Church Street. That was, they used to say, "Oh you from Norfolk. Oh, do you know where Church Street is?" Every time you went somewhere that was the same. | 1:31 |
| Clarice Sharp | They would always ask you about that. But then even in New York, you still had your neighborhood, it was still Harlem and [indistinct 00:02:23]. You were still socializing in your same particular area all together, Blacks all together. And then with your schools, you went to schools and elementary school, you went in your neighborhood, there was no such thing as the busing and all of that that came later. You walked to school and everybody in the neighborhood walked to the same school. | 2:12 |
| Blair Murphy | What was the name of your school? | 2:51 |
| Clarice Sharp | John T. West. My aunt was a teacher there. So I got to start school early because I would go to school with her and that allowed me to get started earlier. But it was very enjoyable and I'm still friends with a lot of the kids that were in my class. We maintained contact, even though they've gone other places and I've gone other places, but we still sort of connect whenever possible. Then in junior high, it was junior high on one side in high school on the other. Then I left for a year and stayed with my sister in New York and went to junior high there because my niece was going there for the first time and she and I were very close. We were about three years apart, so we were more sisters than aunt and niece. | 2:53 |
| Clarice Sharp | So she was staying up there and so I wanted to stay with her and keep her company. So I stayed for a year and then when I was going into high school, I came back and went to Booker T. And I finished up there. I remember in high school they had some movie that was related to something that I was studying in school and one of my mother's friends called up to the Lois Theater that was on Grandver Street and asked, would it be all right for me to come and see that movie because that movie was pertaining to something I was studying. They said, "Absolutely not." So we knew those things were out. And like riding the bus. When we first moved, when we left Huntersville and then moved to Liberty Park, which was a public housing project, but primarily it was for veterans families, that's the way you initially had to get in there and that's what it was built for, it was during the war period of post—war period. | 3:50 |
| Clarice Sharp | And so initially the buses didn't come, it was a big complex, it didn't come in there. You had to ride where the White area was and then walk several blocks into your neighborhood. It just ran on the main boulevard. So a lot of Whites would be on that bus and of course you weren't supposed to sit, you sit in the back and you could sit up front if all the seats were filled. So this particular time the bus was crowded, people standing up, but there was one vacant seat up there in the front and my cousin and I had gotten on, and she got a seat sitting on the cross seat. So I sat down next to this White woman and she had a fit and she took her arms and, "You can't sit beside me." And then my cousin jumped up and said, "You better leave her alone," and all that. | 5:01 |
| Clarice Sharp | And the White woman ran to the bus driver, "Make her move, make her move." But the bus driver never said anything to me. But it was this, from time to time you would run into those kind of experiences on public transportation and things of that nature and you knew that there was a difference in schools because some of my friends that lived in an area which is right near Granby High School, there was this one street there and it's like all the people in that particular, it was called Bowling Brook and just about everybody there was related. However, they were not allowed to go to that high school. So they had to catch a bus and come to our high school. And although they would pass other schools, everybody had to come to the one school. But we made out fine. Everybody knew everybody else. So it was like one big happy family. | 5:54 |
| Clarice Sharp | And then after I graduated, then I went to, my first year I went to Virginia State in Petersburg, and then I transferred to North Carolina Central the next year and that's where I graduated. But one experience I had in Durham, in the movie, now here, we just had our own movies, but in Durham the Blacks had to sit upstairs, you went to the same movie, but you had to sit upstairs. And I was sitting in the movie one day and I happened to look over the balcony and I saw people jumping up, running out and so I went, "Oh, what's going on?" So then I was with a friend and I said, "Well, we better go see what's going on." Well a fire had started and then, I mean nobody bothered to tell us upstairs, but they notified the Whites downstairs and they were getting out of the movie. | 7:01 |
| Clarice Sharp | And here we are, we were upstairs not knowing what's going on. So it was just, you had little things like that that went on. But it's just, it's interesting and the different people that you run into and different experiences. And when I first came out of school, I went to several different places. I was called the Gypsy in my family because I went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, I went to Providence, Rhode Island. I was just sort of moving around this experience in life, I guess trying to find [indistinct 00:08:39]. And then I ended up in New York for a while, and New Jersey, Montclair and well, and I was married during that time. And then my husband and I broke up and then I came back here and then I continued to work here. But the differences I found in the work situation and when I was in New York and working, I never really associated with any of the Whites in my job, working together. | 7:58 |
| Clarice Sharp | But then when I came here, there were a lot of Whites from the military that were stationed here and a lot of them were employed with me. And we did more socializing here, which I thought was odd. We did more socializing here than when I was actually living in the north, I did very little socializing then. But it's been a nice experience and I like to travel. And of course when you travel you always run into different things, even now. I remember one time my husband went on this trip to Europe and we were in this particular hotel and then I found out that the tour guide who, I guess she was prejudiced to a certain degree, we were the only Black couple on there. So apparently they were short one room in whatever the area was we were to be in. So when we got [indistinct 00:10:25] and she asked some kind of question about did we want a certain type room, we said, "Okay," excuse me. | 9:14 |
| Clarice Sharp | And then we found out that that room was in another part of the hotel, which was different from where everybody else was staying. And so we went to her room and asked, well what was going on? Why should we have a different type room, it was a lower level room than everybody else, we had paid the same money. "Oh, I don't, it's nothing wrong." And she came over there and she put on, "There's nothing wrong with this room," and all this kind of stuff and everything. I was just so annoyed with her. So anyway, when I got back, it was no [indistinct 00:11:05] with her. I wrote a letter and took pictures of the room and took pictures of the other room in comparison, everything. And they did sent us a refund for the inconvenience. But you run into things like that all over, it's just always. And now it just seems to have gotten worse, to me. I don't know what kind of experiences you have, but race is such a pivotal, and it's a primary issue and everything in our lives now. | 10:31 |
| Blair Murphy | You think it's more of an issue today than it was before? | 11:44 |
| Clarice Sharp | I think, oh, much more. Because everything, and the bad part about it is that the majority of Whites feel like they should just have everything. And that's what this Affirmative Action is all about. They don't ever think that they should be questioned or turned back or turned down. It should be there for them. We've always had a fight for it. No matter, they can have 99 laws on the book, but you always had to fight for whatever it is that you got. They don't think they should. If it's there, it should be their choice to have it. If they don't want it, then, "Okay, you know can have it." But they don't want even to compete really. They just want it, "Okay, it's there, I want it, let me have it." | 11:47 |
| Blair Murphy | Do you think it was better before because there was no competition? Status was socially clear? | 12:34 |
| Clarice Sharp | I don't say that it was better, but it's just the attitudes that have developed now. | 12:41 |
| Blair Murphy | I mean that White attitudes didn't even consider Blacks because you weren't part of the arena. | 12:47 |
| Clarice Sharp | Right. And see what has happened now that they know that you are definitely out there and your capabilities, I don't know what this is that I've gotten on my fingers, but anyway, this has been upsetting to them because in a lot of cases they aren't as qualified as we are. And they know with these extra things, this has really made it difficult. And where they could get along getting so much with so little, they'd come out of high school and they would have a top job being your boss and you had finished college and you couldn't get anything. So it's really, and then I look at integration and of course we all want it and we want the opportunity to go where we want to go and do what we want to do. But I think our children have gotten the negative end of the integration. | 12:58 |
| Clarice Sharp | Things like dress, we were always needing our appearance and dressing, then the Whites came in and they start just wearing sloppy clothes. And so we got the negative things. And just like the drugs, drugs were not an issue before they came in, because their parents were all taking Valium and everything else. Where our parents were not, our parents were coping. Their parents would look, always looking for that easy out. So they have been some, I think some of the negative side effects for our children to get some of the habits. And just like when we were taking care of their families, go in the home, we were the ones training the children about courtesies and manners and all those things, personal hygiene. And since we have come out of those jobs, there's a difference in that. If you notice, even if you go look at a movie, things that, I mean they're just not natural to them. | 13:54 |
| Clarice Sharp | I'll never forget in that movie with Dustin Hoffman, when he had Ms. Meryl Streep, he and his son went in the bathroom together, they left the bathroom, went right straight to the kitchen, they didn't wash anything, and then they start cooking their breakfast. And see that's a natural progression for them because that's their way of life, where we wouldn't think of that. We know, "Okay, we are in the bathroom, we finished with the bathroom, wash our hands and then we'll come out and we go in the kitchen." | 15:04 |
| Clarice Sharp | But I mean, they don't think of things like that. And that's because when we left the training ground for them, they picked the easy way out. And they always say that, "Blacks are lazy," and all that. But if you look at the White, it's the Whites. If you look around on your job, it's the Whites that are always looking for a way not to have to work. "What is the easy job and what can we do? Well do we really, we don't really need to do that more. We can do this or we can do that." And it's always looking for somebody else to do it. I remember one person I was working with and he was always looking for some, "Well, we can contract that out," anything to get the work away from them. They don't look at the consequences or anything like that. But that's just their way of dealing with life issues. | 15:35 |
| Blair Murphy | So you said your mother was a school teacher? | 16:36 |
| Clarice Sharp | No, my aunt. | 16:38 |
| Blair Murphy | Your aunt was a school teacher. | 16:38 |
| Clarice Sharp | Mm—hmm. | 16:40 |
| Blair Murphy | Did you live with your mother? | 16:42 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah. Mm—hmm. Yeah, I lived with my mother. | 16:45 |
| Blair Murphy | What did your parents do for a living? | 16:46 |
| Clarice Sharp | Well, my mother initially, my mother worked in Smith and Welton, which was a department store in the tearoom. They called it the tearoom. And she used to make the salads and things of that nature. So she did the cooking and she used to tell me about interesting experiences too, because anybody, they wouldn't put her in charge, but of course she had to train everybody else. And they would tell them "Make certain salads," or whatever. And a lot of them, I mean they didn't even know the difference between the different types of foods, but still they would be paid the money and things like that. And then she used to do some catering and then she left there and then she worked at the Custom House as a custodian. And that was the last job she had, she retired from that. | 16:47 |
| Blair Murphy | So the tearoom was in the White department store? | 17:49 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah. Mm—hmm, right. And I'm trying to think, I mean the department store closed a few years ago, but I don't think they ever had any Black waitresses. I was just trying to think because I went there. I used to go there on a regular basis, but even by the time that they closed, I don't think that, if they did maybe one or two, but I can't even remember any. But that was, I mean it was a popular store, like Easter time you go there get your hot cross bun and was the food was the always delicious. It was a good place for eating. And then while my mother was working out, I would be at my grandmother's and she, because we lived just a couple of doors apart and she was home all the time. | 17:52 |
| Clarice Sharp | But my father died when I was in the third grade. He had an accident, he fell down steps and he never recovered from that. But he used to work on the ferry that went from Norfolk to Cape Charles, so that's what he did. And I'll never forget the experience we had in riding the boat from, they used to have a boat from here going to New York. And I thought that was just so exciting. We'd get on the boat and we had a room and stayed overnight. And the next morning you woke up, you were at the Statue of Liberty. So that was a nice experience. | 18:52 |
| Blair Murphy | And that boat was— | 19:43 |
| Clarice Sharp | It used to leave from Norfolk downtown and then it would go to New York. | 19:45 |
| Blair Murphy | Was it segregated? | 19:51 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah. And then after that there was the train, but you caught the ferry from here to Cape Charles, and then you got on the train and of course you had segregated cars [indistinct 00:20:08]. | 19:53 |
| Blair Murphy | Did it change once you crossed the Mason Dixon line or did it say segregated all the way? | 20:07 |
| Clarice Sharp | It more or less stayed the same. I don't really remember it changing. I don't really remember it changing. I remember taking a train from out west somewhere, and I remember they had the cars, Colored and the White. I don't really remember it changing. | 20:15 |
| Blair Murphy | So was your entire family from this area? | 20:46 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah, everybody was from— My father was from over on the eastern shore and then everybody else was from here. But then of course they migrated different places. My grandmother was here, but then all her sisters were in Philadelphia and I think one in Camden and one in Atlantic City. And now my family is separate, well one sister here in Virginia Beach and myself, other two sisters are in New York. And then I have a niece, two nieces in Oklahoma City, one in Maryland, one in DC and one in Brussels. So everybody's sort of scattered around there. | 20:51 |
| Blair Murphy | Did your grandmother tell you any family stories when you were growing up? | 21:50 |
| Clarice Sharp | Not too much. I was trying to think. Not too much. Although, and I spent a lot of time there then a lot of time visiting friends. But we didn't, I used to visit all the people in that block, like the man who owned the candy store and then the lady whose husband was a funeral director, I used to just always go and talk to them. And I guess it was really, they were really telling me a lot of stories, but we'd just talk, just talk about different things. But no, she really didn't, now that I think about it. And another aunt, both of my aunts were living there with my grandmother and then my uncle and her brother, my grandmother's brother. | 21:58 |
| Blair Murphy | Who were the most respected people in your community, your neighborhood? | 23:05 |
| Clarice Sharp | I guess it was like Mr. And Mrs. King, that was the man who owned the funeral home. And then Mr. And Mrs. Thomas, they owned the grocery store at the corner. And then there was a Mrs. Day, she was up the other end. They were right in that immediate block. And there was Ms. Cotton across the street, she was one of the teachers and along with my aunt. But it's that everybody was just really special because you knew everybody and everybody treated you well. I can't think of anything else. | 23:17 |
| Blair Murphy | What did you do when you were young, socially? | 24:21 |
| Clarice Sharp | Oh, socially? Oh, I belonged to a lot of groups. I belonged to the Girl Scouts. I belonged to the Y. I belonged to Girl Friendly Society, which was an organization in the church. So I mean, it was just something going on all the time. And we had a lot of social activities, the Y was just a couple of blocks away from where I was living, so we'd go there a lot and do have little parties and we would have meetings and things of that nature. | 24:24 |
| Clarice Sharp | And then we'd go on trips and go to conferences and meet other kids. So that was really a lot of fun. And then the Girl Scout Troops and we would get together, do things like that. And then little church groups. So we had a lot of fun. And then we would visit each other and we'd go to the movies. So it was always something to do. I mean, you never really could say that you're just really bored. Like kids nowadays say, "Oh, I'm bored. I have nothing to do." But it just, it's a lot to do. And I always liked to read so I could just easily entertain myself, just get a good book and read. I really didn't have to have a lot going on. But I did, but it wasn't necessary. | 25:02 |
| Blair Murphy | Were there any organizations like the NAACP in your area? | 26:08 |
| Clarice Sharp | Well, I guess the NAACP, it's always been around, but I wasn't really involved in anything like that was really, I was never really involved in things of that nature. I remember when they were trying to get the Urban League here and that was a big fight and they finally got it, but it took them a real long time to really, and Vivian Mason, she was the person who was instrumental in getting it in this area. But because I always asked her, "Why don't we have an Urban League?" And so we finally got one and they're doing really well. | 26:17 |
| Blair Murphy | Do you remember around what year that was? | 27:05 |
| Clarice Sharp | No, I sure don't. It might have been in the late sixties or early seventies, I'm not sure. | 27:08 |
| Blair Murphy | And what type of work did you do when you finished school? | 27:17 |
| Clarice Sharp | Oh, social work. I was a social worker, so, well, I worked in New York and then I came here. So in New York I worked in social services and I worked in children's court as a probation officer. And then I worked in public housing as a housing assistant. And then I came here and I worked in social work and intake, foster care, emergency services. | 27:24 |
| Blair Murphy | What were the big cultural differences between working in New York and working here? | 28:00 |
| Clarice Sharp | Well, when I was working in New York, the areas that I had were primarily the Puerto Ricans and I dealt mostly with Italians, Jews, Puerto Ricans, the caseloads that I had, that's where they were located. So I didn't really come into a contact with a lot of Blacks as far as my clients. And then of course when I came here it was completely different because things were still pretty much segregated. They were just beginning to change really when I came here. | 28:05 |
| Blair Murphy | Were there Black doctors? | 28:52 |
| Clarice Sharp | Oh yeah, in fact, the Black doctors lived in my neighborhood at the time. There was Dr. Collins, that was one of our doctors, and he lived a couple of blocks. So then there was Dr. Buck and he was further down the street. Dr. Washington, Dr. Givens. So they were always in the neighborhood. And then when the doctors and Dr. Murray, when the doctors start moving, then they moved, all moved in the general area out here. Well it's Virginia Beach Boulevard now, but it was Broad Creek at the time. Yeah. So yeah, all the Black doctors they were there and they were in the neighborhood. And sometime with Dr. Givens, he was secretary to the medical association. So in the summertime I could get a job there typing up envelopes and things of that nature. | 28:54 |
| Blair Murphy | There was a Black hospital as well? | 30:07 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah, Norfolk Community. | 30:09 |
| Blair Murphy | And that's where [indistinct 00:30:17]? | 30:15 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah, on Corprew, right next to Norfolk State. Yeah. So I think that's one of the few Black hospitals left now. Just like with the [indistinct 00:30:31], they're really, and as far as the YWCA, we don't really have that, they merged with the one downtown. So we really lost our identity. I mean, they have some of our things in there on the wall, but it's not in our neighborhood, so it doesn't feel like it's a part of us. But the YMCA, they have chosen to remain separate. So that's good. And I hope they can continue to keep that. I think that's real important. | 30:18 |
| Clarice Sharp | And one of my friends were, she died last year, her father was ear, nose and throat, and I think he was probably one of the few Blacks that was that, they lived on Church Street. I mean his office was there and they lived upstairs. So one of the things I used do, her mother, my mother were friends, since we were attending the same church. My mother and her mother would play cards and then we would sit at the window looking out on Church Street to see all the stuff. People going up and there on the street, having all the fun. When we went out to Dennis, somebody was talking about the Booker T. Grill. And I remember I just couldn't figure out what is going on in the back of the Booker T. Grill because on Sunday after church you go in there, like I said, and because my father was dead then. | 31:10 |
| Clarice Sharp | And so my mother would sit me out front and then she and her friends, they would go in the back and I would be having my milkshake. And I said, "What is going on back there?" So finally when I got old enough to go in the back, I mean it's just that you could go back there and they had a jukebox and you could dance and they had beer, but you always are curious about things that you can't see. And when I was, a few days ago, I was just riding over in the neighborhood and just looking to see if any of the places were standing, because the house that I was born in, that's gone, they had knocked that down and the next house that we had moved in that was gone too. I said, "Well, all I have are these vacant fields and these [indistinct 00:33:03] to be looking at." | 32:09 |
| Clarice Sharp | But I was just going, just looking through the neighborhood because the library was, that was in the neighborhood too, so I could just walk. And that was really good because I liked to read so I could just walk to library and get books all the time. So that made it, that was nice, and that was convenient. Something else I was trying to think of. You mean? | 33:05 |
| Blair Murphy | Mm—hmm. | 33:35 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah, you had your Black beauticians and so it was whoever that you knew. And another thing growing up during that time, your friends were friends of whoever your parents were friendly with. I mean they had to know the parents of the children that you were associated with for the most part. And I guess that's why there was a close connection because they knew your parents and your parents knew their parents and that was your connecting thing. | 33:41 |
| Clarice Sharp | But for shopping, because my and her mother worked at Smith and Welton, a lot of my clothes were bought there. And then there was another shop. My Lady Shop, which is closed now, but I would get a lot of clothes there. And because my feet, I always had large feet, so I would have to go to certain stores to get shoes because most of the time they didn't have my size. But I would do that and my mother would always have, by her working downtown and knowing different people, she would have certain sales ladies and they were always real good to us. They knew our styles and knew what we wanted. And they would tell my mother, "Oh, we have so—and—so and she'll like that." | 34:22 |
| Clarice Sharp | Like if I, when I come home from school or whatever. So that was never really any problem. Now I visited a friend in Baltimore and I remember that they wouldn't let you try on stuff. And I said, "Well we can try on stuff in Norfolk," you had to go in a back room, but you could try it on. | 35:11 |
| Blair Murphy | And this was on Church Street though, right? | 35:32 |
| Clarice Sharp | No, this is downtown on Granby. | 35:34 |
| Blair Murphy | Oh. | 35:37 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah. It was no place to shop on Church Street. But this was downtown. But I just thought that was odd. And then when you look at the stores, we own, a lot of Blacks that own businesses on Church Street. And then I remember going to 125th Street and the primary people owned it were Whites, but in the Black neighborhood. But then on Church Street we had Woolworths and we couldn't go in there and eat. It was right in our neighborhood, but we couldn't eat, you could go in there and buy stuff, but you could not go in there and sit down for a long time until the laws were changed. | 35:38 |
| Blair Murphy | That's strange that they ever built one the Black neighborhood. | 36:32 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah, right. | 36:34 |
| Blair Murphy | In the first place. | 36:35 |
| Clarice Sharp | See, but what happened is there were a lot of White owned businesses so that their people would places to go and eat, they would have that. And then I remember even the one downtown and a couple of my sisters they were fairer, fairer than I was and their hair was straighter and everything. And sometimes they would just come, they were just gone and ask them, they were go on, "I want a drink," or something like that. And they would get it because they didn't know that they weren't White. But it was always, it's like we were really, it was like playing a little joke, "Well I think I'm just go on over there and ask for that and everything because they don't know the difference." And we always thought that was amusing because Whites think they know everything. But that was one thing, it's very difficult. In fact, sometimes it's difficult for us to tell, but it's even more difficult for them. But it was never— | 36:36 |
| Blair Murphy | Do you know if Church Street was always a Black area, the neighborhood surrounding or did it become a Black area? | 37:51 |
| Clarice Sharp | As far as I know it was. As far as I know. Now, of course there always were White owned businesses on there. We just had a few things, we didn't have— And then as we started to get more things, that's when the whole thing started changing. But basically it was White owned businesses that we patronized. That's really what it was. Because you had the Eureka Lodge that was on there. That was one of the places where they would go and they would have dances and parties and stuff like that. | 38:05 |
| Clarice Sharp | And then in the drug stores, where you could go and get a soda. But they were still owned by Whites, but they were just on Church Street. So it wasn't really a whole lot of them. And basically, I guess our neighborhoods were really built, you were either on one side of Church Street or the other. Except on Berkeley, which was across the water, which is on the South side. Then you had that community on this side, on the South side. But it was Huntersville and there was Lindenwood. And then you had a couple of neighborhoods which were in the middle of the pockets of the White neighborhoods that was that Bowling Brook, which was at one street that ran off Granby Street. Then Titus Town, which was off Little Creek Road. So you had those two little pockets. But both of those pockets basically were one family all connected. | 38:56 |
| Blair Murphy | So Huntersville was on one side of Church Street? | 40:14 |
| Clarice Sharp | No, Huntersville was on both sides of Church Street. And then you had Lindenwood after, when you got to the end I think like Sea Avenue. And then you crossed the railroad track, then you were in Lindenwood. And that was another area adjoining. Now the other areas that they have now, like Park Place Colonial, but we weren't even living there then Brambleton, like where Norfolk State is, we weren't there. And then eventually we start moving in those areas and— | 40:19 |
| Blair Murphy | They moved Norfolk State over there, right? | 40:53 |
| Clarice Sharp | Yeah, because Norfolk State was on Church Street. Yeah, Church Street, Wood Street. And just like when my father died, and he was in the hospital, which was at that time was called St. Vincent's Hospital, which they later used that site for the beginning of Norfolk State. But I'll never forget that experience because they brought him home from the hospital and he was all fully dressed in a suit and everything. And they laid him on the couch in our living room, but he was in a coma. And I kept shaking him, "Daddy wake up," and doing his eyes and all that and everything. And he never, he just stayed there for, and I don't know, I don't remember what the period of time was. And then they took him away. I mean he never came out of the coma. So I don't know that medical care, whatever. | 40:55 |
| Clarice Sharp | But I couldn't see why he was even sent home in a coma. But they were the type of things that they would do. And I'll never forget, I got scald and what happened, my sister was going up the stairs and she had one of those old—fashioned tea kettles, she was holding the handle, the handle broke, it was full of hot water. Because she was older so she was able to jump, so she jumped and I was right behind her because I was going up the steps behind her and the water came on my ankle and I, you how you just remember? And I know I couldn't have been over three years old, but I remember that experience and the burning. I remember sitting on this top and my father took the sock off and my skin all— Then I remember being in that hospital in the crib, it was so vivid and I know I didn't want to stay in there, I wanted to go home, and I had to stay in. And I fortunately, and I got off, I recovered from that and I didn't have any problems, but— | 42:00 |
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