Creola Parker interview recording, 1997 October 20

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC 4.0
  More Rights Info
- Files (2)
- MP3 Part 1
- MP3 Part 2
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4z039h86?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' loading='lazy' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4z039h86
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

Speaker 1	[indistinct 00:00:01] You know, I got out of my driveway and I asked her where to go. She said she [indistinct 00:00:06].	0:01
Serena Rhodie	Do you want to talk more about your parents?	0:01
Serena Rhodie	Well, were they active in church?	0:17
Speaker 1	[indistinct 00:00:19]	0:19
Creola Parker	[indistinct 00:00:25]	0:25
Speaker 1	[indistinct 00:00:30] She tore off her [indistinct 00:00:31]	0:30
Serena Rhodie	Were they active within any groups in the community?	0:30
Creola Parker	I don't think so, 'cause then they didn't have no groups and things like they do now.	0:30
Serena Rhodie	Working in tobacco, how did your father enjoy doing that?	0:30
Creola Parker	Well, we lived on, we lived in a neighborhood which was in Person County and he enjoyed it.	0:36
Speaker 1	[indistinct 00:01:06] Well, take her off it [indistinct 00:01:13]	1:06
Creola Parker	That's the first time [indistinct 00:01:22] somebody been doing that all the way there. But he hasn't done it, thank the Lord, He's been watching over while we were [indistinct 00:01:40]. But I had a lot of it [indistinct 00:01:57]. Everytime he does that it scares me to death. 'Cause I think I'm going to have him do it. But, if you want to, I have real deal friends. All of them are, over my, my everything. They will always be with me. And they're with me and they would understand me, even now, that's what I said. And we would just—and then years ago I had a friend that was watching out for me, and then I had a brother that would learn, you know. And we communicated so well together. And there was nothing wrong with her. And then she would support me. All of us would. We discovered that she had cancer on the larynx. And she didn't have no time. And I got over that year, because of larynx surgery. And here we were, we were talking about me, me going, you know. And then it ended up being her. And I still, right to today I miss her so bad.	1:06
Creola Parker	Yesterday, at church, [Indistinct 00:03:00] because it was homecoming at my church, and she used to—you know, she's been dead for about four to five years, but I still miss her. So yesterday being homecoming, I thought that she'd be there, you know, yet it's homecoming, she's not here. And I got real sad. I looked back in church and there was this girl that was wearing clothes also that she thought of her daughter. I was her sister, she was his daughter. And when I looked back and saw her I thought "Lord, she ain't that dead," you know, that just made it seem more closer than—I sat there and I felt moved, dry water running down. And she came to me after church, "I just got to say something to you before I leave." All I could say is in a note that I wrote her. I had written her a note. I handed her the note so she saw that I was all [indistinct 00:04:08]. So she said, "But I'm going to write you." I said, "All right, 'cause I'm pretty sure you will," 'cause she saw that I was all [indistinct 00:04:25], you know. It just brought back so many memories yesterday. Yeah.	1:22
Serena Rhodie	Do you want to talk about some things you and her used to do together?	1:22
Creola Parker	We used to do everything, there was nothing we didn't do together—I, ain't nothing. She would say "I'm driving there, I'll be up there in a few minutes," all right, and she would say "I'm bringing so-and-so, you want lunch?" yeah. "I'm going so-and-so, you want to ride with me?" yeah. And "I'm doing so-and-so, I want to go with you," all right. We had tons of stuff we did. That's what we did. Hold on for just one minute.	4:31
Serena Rhodie	Was she also a housewife? What did she do for a living?	4:34
Creola Parker	No, she believe it or not she used to work in the [indistinct 00:05:29], oh yes, that's true. For years, I never went there, but that's where she worked for years. And then after then, she worked Operation Breakthrough, and that's where she worked until she retired.	5:24
Serena Rhodie	What exactly is Operation Breakthrough?	5:29
Creola Parker	It was [indistinct 00:06:01] Break through the beginning walls, or something like that [indistinct 00:06:01]. Yeah, maybe that's what it is.	5:29
Serena Rhodie	Was it kind of like a preschool kind of thing, or?	6:01
Creola Parker	Yeah, below, you know below grade three but you know, that kind of thing.	6:01
Serena Rhodie	So did she really like children?	6:01
Creola Parker	Yeah, evidently, 'cause she worked there for years. Yeah, she loved the children, and she was my son's schoolteacher. Loved people, everything. Yeah.	6:24
Serena Rhodie	Did she have children of her own?	6:24
Creola Parker	Yeah, she had one daughter.	6:24
Serena Rhodie	Do you keep in touch with her?	6:30
Creola Parker	Yeah, yes I keep in touch with her.	6:50
Speaker 4	What do you want now?	6:50
Creola Parker	I don't want anything.	6:50
Serena Rhodie	What do you like about coming to the center?	6:50
Creola Parker	People like her. I just like this better then—you know, we sit around and they like—I've always wanted to crochet, and I never knew how and she has taught me how to make the loops like I have, you know. She has taught me how to do some of that, which is something I've always wanted to do.	6:54
Serena Rhodie	What are some of the other things that you've learned here? We just couldn't get past crochet.	7:11
Creola Parker	Well, not this month, we learned how to make a lot of little things there now. I made some really pretty flowers last year, and that's what I gave the girls where I worked at. I gave them a [indistinct 00:07:59] my last day. And I put them all through the flowers and all, that's what I gave them for Christmas and they were just tickled to death for this reason, that I made them. Yeah.	7:38
Serena Rhodie	You said you gave them to who?	7:45
Creola Parker	The girls at the bank that I used to work with.	7:45
Serena Rhodie	[indistinct 00:08:23]	8:23
Creola Parker	Oh Lord, and I still have a good relationship. Once you're friends of mine, you don't ever lose me. That's the kind of person I am. Yeah.	8:23
Serena Rhodie	Oh. Did they have like a retirement party for you or—?	8:23
Creola Parker	No, not really. I just submitted a thing, that it was different than retirement, you know. 'Cause retirement is after you done got so many years. I'd been there for 13, and then neither one of those had been with me, so.	8:24
Serena Rhodie	You said you got a five-year kind of a plaque and a ten-year [indistinct 00:09:09] pin?	8:24
Creola Parker	A pin, a pin yeah. For just being, you know, a service pin.	8:48
Serena Rhodie	Okay, was it given to you in kind of a ceremony or just?	8:48
Creola Parker	Well, we would go and then at the end of every year they would have a little party somewhere, and this is where they usually done those.	9:12
Serena Rhodie	Go back to when you learned how to drive. Who taught you how to drive?	9:12
Creola Parker	Oh well, I started off that my husband doing it, but then, you know how it is with a husband—you probably aren't married, but, gosh, a husband is just the wrong person to learn how to drive. So, I had a lady—I had to quit doing it with him 'cause he would fuss with me when I made mistakes. And I got in that view, and then he never even taught me how to drive 'cause he was fussing with me. That's a fact, yeah, I probably wouldn't have no license today if I kept on with my husband, cause he'd fuss every time I made a mistake, instead of just correcting me, he'd fuss with me.	9:25
Serena Rhodie	Did he make you nervous?	9:25
Creola Parker	Amen. One day we were going somewhere and he said, like, Mr. So and So. Well, I took my eyes off the road and was looking at that. I ended up going right straight to that and that's when—that's when I gave it up with him.	9:40
Serena Rhodie	You went straight to a -?	9:40
Creola Parker	Whatever that was, we supposed to be looking at, instead of just looking and putting my eyes back on the road, he had 'em going all over there with his arm.	10:34
Speaker 5	[indistinct 00:11:00] He paid so much to [indistinct 00:11:04] with you. [indistinct 00:11:08] You picked them, Jenna. And they put the [indistinct 00:11:14]	11:00
Serena Rhodie	So what did he say when you finally came home and you learned how to drive? How was it your driving was?	11:00
Creola Parker	Well, he still don't like to ride with me.	11:00
Speaker 5	Give him the money, though, and this guy, he was running [indistinct 00:11:36]. But we done give this guy money. He—	11:29
Creola Parker	[indistinct 00:11:58] You probably don't, you probably don't have that on now. Well, that's about it, that's about all I know to say, yeah. I hope maybe I said something to help you out, if I did, I don't know.	12:01

Serena Rhodie	I just want to test the thing on your jacket first, and then hold it up.	0:01
Creola Parker	All right.	0:03
Serena Rhodie	Let me put this on. Okay.	0:03
Creola Parker	Hello. My name is Creola Parker. What is your name? Huh?	0:03
Serena Rhodie	I'm Serena Rhodie.	0:03
Creola Parker	Oh, your name is Serena? I live at 2719 Moore's Mill Road, and this is Rougemont, North Carolina, 27572. All right?	0:03
Serena Rhodie	Okay, let me test and see how that came out. It's picking it up so—okay. Where were you born?	0:03
Creola Parker	I was born in Person County. That's right over from Durham County.	0:03
Serena Rhodie	You want to say when?	0:03
Creola Parker	I was born March twentieth, 1934, in Person County.	0:03
Serena Rhodie	What were your parents' names?	0:03
Creola Parker	My mother was named Earle Cameron. Her maiden name was Cameron, and my father's name was James Garfield Johnson, and they were both born and reared also in Person County.	0:03
Serena Rhodie	What did they do for a living?	1:33
Creola Parker	My father was a farmer, and my mother was a house laborer, father's wife, I guess, you would call it. Right? When I was eight, January 11th, we moved. We relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, where we stayed for several years before coming back to North Carolina.	1:33
Serena Rhodie	How was it growing up on the farm?	1:56
Creola Parker	Well, it was varied. It was work everything. I know that. We were grinding. We ran through, and we added—we didn't have running water, so we had to get our water from a stream, and we had to bring it as we got up with some buckets, so when we got ready to wash, we had to bring the wash water up, and pour it out, so when we got ready to wash on the washing board, we would have enough water to do it with, and also, if we didn't get our water the day before, we would have to stay out of school, and get our water for the washing. My grandmother and mother, they wasn't able to do it, so we would have to do that.	1:56
Serena Rhodie	What kind of crops did your father have?	3:27
Creola Parker	We labored on tobacco and corn. He had lots of tobacco, and even when we lived in Baltimore, when school was out in the summertime, we never got a chance to roam the street. My mother, they would put us on the bus, and bring us to North Carolina, and we would work in tobacco when school was out, and then we would go back up there and go to school, so we never had the opportunity to play in the street like most children, so maybe they was what made me the lady that I am today.	3:27
Serena Rhodie	Did they have a farm in Baltimore, too?	3:27
Creola Parker	No. My mother was employed by one of the cotton mills in Baltimore, Maryland, and my father, when we was there, he worked for [indistinct 00:04:40] Mill Company until he came back down here, and the reason that we relocated back to North Carolina was that my mother became sick, and then we came back to my grandmother's, so that we would have somebody to look after us growing up, so we were raised—I was raised by my grandmother.	3:28
Serena Rhodie	Did you have brothers? How many brothers and sisters did you have?	4:40
Creola Parker	I have one sister and one brother. My sister, she was born in North Carolina, but my brother is the only one that was born in Maryland.	4:40
Serena Rhodie	So are you the oldest?	4:40
Creola Parker	I am the oldest. Yep, I am the oldest and the biggest baby of the bunch.	4:40
Serena Rhodie	Did you have a lot of friends when you were younger?	4:40
Creola Parker	Oh, yes. I've always had lots of friends. Yep.	5:37
Serena Rhodie	What did you do for fun?	5:37
Creola Parker	Well, when I was small, I [indistinct 00:05:50] ride, but we used to play cards. My mother didn't want us to, but we would slip and play cards, and games, and stuff, play in the mud. We didn't have toys like they do now, so we would make dolls out of rags and things. We would be just make them out of corn silk and stuff like that. We had corn silk for the hair and all that kind of stuff. And we would make mud pies. We would mix it in. We would stir it in, and we would take the mud and wet it and stuff. That would be our stuff, where we would make up our bread and stuff that we was using. And we had our swing, we would get older, get an automobile tire, and put it in a tree, and get in there and that would be our swing. And we had a—what do you call it? A jumping board, where we would put something on a rock, and one person get on one end, and one the other, and we would go up.	5:37
Serena Rhodie	A seesaw?	5:50
Creola Parker	Yeah. That was our seesaw. We made our toys, and we would [indistinct 00:06:47]. You know those big pans that you buy food in? We would put them on the ground, and do like that, and make our bread in there, and that would be our [indistinct 00:06:47]. We had brought one of those tin cans. We made our toys.	5:50
Serena Rhodie	What kind of card games did you play?	6:47
Creola Parker	So long, I done forgot now. It ain't like I can name one of them's names, mud or something another. I done forgot now. It's been so many years ago.	6:47
Serena Rhodie	From what you told me before you said you go to church. What church do you go to?	6:47
Creola Parker	Now, I go to New Red Mountain Church, which is right here in Rougemont.	6:47
Serena Rhodie	What church did you go to when you were younger, though?	6:47
Creola Parker	When I was younger I joined the New Person Baptist Church, which is in the county where I was born, and that's where I was baptized at, and then in Baltimore there was a Methodist Church right in front of our house, so that's where we joined while we was there.	6:47
Serena Rhodie	Were you very active in church when you were younger?	6:47
Creola Parker	Well, not really. No more than maybe just a member.	6:47
Serena Rhodie	What was your first job?	6:47
Creola Parker	You mean I was on my own? In other words, when you grow up and leave home? Is that what you're meaning?	6:47
Serena Rhodie	Well, not necessarily. It could have been a job you had when you were a teenager.	6:47
Creola Parker	Oh, well, that was at home because when we lived in Baltimore, my mother and father both worked, and my mother would give us fifty cent a week, and then we thought—fifty cents would buy five dollars worth today. It was fifty cent, and she would give us fifty cents a week to clean up the house and everything, so I guess that's my first job because that taught me how to clean. That did help me down the road because all of my work after I got of age was cleaning up different people's homes, doing the messy work. I was considered one of the best in the field. I can't say that now, but I used to be.	6:47
Serena Rhodie	What school did you attend when you were younger?	6:47
Creola Parker	I attended—it was then known as Person County Training School. I attended there, and I dropped out in the ninth grade, and so I just went on from there. I did the messy work and stayed with this family, and I just worked different places all over Durham in these different homes. At the age of forty-eight, I decided to go back to Durham Technical Institute to study for my GED because I was motivated by a lady named Lynola Frost that I could do something better than what I was doing, and she just sort of pushed me into it. I still didn't want to do it, but she just got behind me like, "You must do it." So before I do anything, I was in, I let her push me into it, but I'm glad now that she did. After I finished doing my thing there, I did get my GED, and afterwards, my first job behind that was, I was employed by Sears in Durham.	9:20
Creola Parker	And from that, I was involved with a career day where I met somebody from Mechanics and Farmer's Bank in and talked to them. That's where I decided to apply, and I my application was accepted, so I turned my resignation in to Sears because I'd rather work at the bank than to work at Sears. I went from Sears to Mechanics and Farmers Bank where I remained in their bookkeeping department, and I was also later on the switch board operator, but I remained in those two positions, until I had the disability that I have now. I just was there for twelve years. I received my five-year pin and, also, my ten-year pin from there.	9:20
Serena Rhodie	Okay. So why did you drop out of school after ninth grade?	9:20
Creola Parker	Well, back then, we didn't have clothes and different things, and the year I was going into high school, and all the other girls I saw was all dressed up and looking pretty and everything, and I didn't have all of that stuff, so I was just ashamed going to school because I didn't have anything like the other girls in my class, so that's the reason I dropped out.	9:20
Serena Rhodie	Can you describe some of your jobs when you were working as a housekeeper?	9:20
Creola Parker	Oh, I worked for one lady, Mrs. Thompson, for twenty years. Back then she was paying me four dollars a day, and I worked from seven thirty to four o'clock for four dollars a day, and the people that I stayed on the lot with, the ones that I stayed—the people that I stayed on the lot with they were paying me fourteen dollars a week, and I stayed there on the lot until the weekend, and then I'd go back out to Rougemont and stay at my grandmother's, then I'd go back on Sunday night, but my fourteen dollars then would buy what 100 dollars would buy now. I could buy me a dress that was pretty and everything out of fourteen dollars.	16:37
Serena Rhodie	How was your relationship with your employers? Did you really like them?	16:37
Creola Parker	Oh, I loved them everyone of them, and they loved me. Anywhere that I worked, I was always accepted as a member of the family was the relationship that we always had.	16:48
Serena Rhodie	Did you feel like you could go to them whenever you needed something?	16:48
Creola Parker	Yes. Anytime I never went to them for anything that I did not get. One of the ladies that I worked for I learned to drive, and I did not have car, and they even borrowed money for me. I had to pay the money back, but they borrowed money in their name to buy me a car, so I could drive back and forth to work, and I thought that was real nice, but I paid every dime of it back.	16:48
Serena Rhodie	So what was your first car?	16:55
Creola Parker	Let's see. What was that little car? It was a little Pontiac. I think it was about a '72 or something like that, Pontiac.	16:55
Serena Rhodie	Was it brand new when you got it?	17:02
Creola Parker	No. It was used. I think we paid 250 dollars for it, and today it probably would cost three thousand-something dollars or more.	17:02
Serena Rhodie	Do you know a lot of people that were— When you were working as a housekeeper, did you know a lot of other people working as housekeepers?	17:02
Creola Parker	Yes because before I started driving and was working, I was riding with somebody. One of them was my sister-in-law, and then another lady, but it was like their job. We didn't have any money to drive. Everybody else would ride with that person, and paid them so much a day for riding.	17:02
Serena Rhodie	Did these other people have similar experiences like you did with relations with the families that you worked for?	17:07
Creola Parker	Right. It was something that in all of my working I ain't never been fired from a job. I always if something came up, something better or more money, or something, then I would leave and go to another one, but I was never fired from a job. I was laid off from the bank one time, but it was four girls, and I thought this was so amazing to me. It's really saying something to me. It was four, but I was the oldest one, I was the only one that didn't know how to type. The rest of them could type. I could not, and I was the oldest, and after a little while, I was the first one out of the bunch that was called back. The other three wasn't, and I thought that said a lot about me as a person because here I was competing with three younger girls. They could have got either one of those back, but they didn't. They chose me. That was kind of like a little star in my crown.	17:15
Serena Rhodie	How was it when you went back, going back to Durham Tech? How was the classwork? How did you like it?	17:28
Creola Parker	Oh, well. I went to [indistinct 00:18:45] School, but that was a division. It was also by Durham Tech, sort of like the senior citizen is aligned with Durham, but it's all together. That was an experience because at my age, 48, most of the other girls they were maybe like your age, something like that, but I'm the only old lady in there, and now, can you imagine that if had something like that, that old woman. You know? Or something another, you know? Because you hear that stuff, but I never let it phase me because I was doing this for me, not for them. I just kept right on. I finished with honors, and stuff. A lot of them didn't even finish. You see what I'm saying? Because I got an award for most achievements. I got one for perfect attendance. I got one for most likely to succeed. I got all of that kind of stuff.	18:45
Creola Parker	After I got through, I had finished, got my diploma, I was called back to speak to the next graduating class, and I thought there, "Oh, boy. Here I am going back to speak," but I thoroughly enjoyed that. I just told them my story, what motivated me, and what I had done, and everybody was so attentive. I could really tell that they was really enjoying what I was saying because I enjoyed telling them, and they listened, and I got a letter back. I was glad that they enjoyed me.	19:06
Serena Rhodie	That's good.	19:09
Creola Parker	Yeah.	19:09
Serena Rhodie	Did you ever get married?	19:09
Creola Parker	Yes. I married. My husband's name is William, and he was born and bred in Rougemont, and after I married him, when I was twenty years old, that's when I moved back into the Rougemont area. We lived there. That was the first place that we lived, which is located right up the road from here, so we have been married forty-two years, and basically most of that was spent in Quail Roost until we got out on a little piece of land and mobile home of our own.	19:09
Serena Rhodie	So what does your husband do? What did he do with [indistinct 00:21:46]?	19:12
Creola Parker	He worked in Quail Roost. He worked on a dairy farm. Yeah. He worked and he milked cows, and that kind of thing.	21:46
Serena Rhodie	Did he do that for most of his life?	21:46
Creola Parker	Yeah. He had worked there before we got married, and after we got married, and we moved back there. After he was already working there, they gave us a house to live in after we married.	21:46
Serena Rhodie	Do you have any children?	21:46
Creola Parker	No. I don't have any children.	21:46
Serena Rhodie	I remember you saying when you were at the—at Hayti, you said that your employer's children were like your children. Can you describe the relationship you had with them?	21:46
Creola Parker	Oh, yeah. The family that, the first one that I started working for when I was seventeen when my mama said, "Now, you're out on your own." They were the ones that I lived on the lot with that I was saying about, and I raised their children, and they were just like my children. I loved them and they loved me. So I just ran the house. They did the work, and I ran the house, and did the children, and everything. Right today we have a very warm relationship. They say that I'm their Black mama, that they got two mamas. They got a White mama and a Black mama. They'll tell anybody. This is my Black mama. They just love me to death, and I do them. Yeah.	22:38
Serena Rhodie	Did you have to discipline them at any time?	23:45
Creola Parker	Oh, Lord. Yes. There was no child abuse then because I tore their butts all to pieces, and their mama they would get another whipping because, like I say, they was mine, and they're just like children. They did. I had my room on the lot there with them. We all sit down and ate together. They had company, and I didn't wait until they got theirs or none of that. I don't care who they had. They would dump it in my plate. I sat down and ate right along with them. In my little room, I didn't have a bathroom in my little place, but we all had the same bathtub and everything right there together. They made no difference in me whatsoever.	23:45
Serena Rhodie	With all your employers did that same relationship did it differentiate anything?	23:45
Creola Parker	Yeah. I had a good one with everybody, but that was the only family that I stayed on the lot with. The rest of them I would go and stay with and work that day with that lady, and another day for somebody else.	23:45
Serena Rhodie	What type of community did you grow up in? Was the community close knit? Were the houses close together, really far apart?	23:46
Creola Parker	Well, in North Carolina, they were far apart, but you know how [indistinct 00:25:24] is, that was congested.	25:10
Serena Rhodie	Were neighborhoods friendly? Could you go maybe next door and borrow something, things like that?	25:26
Creola Parker	But in Baltimore, well, yeah. We had good neighbors in Baltimore. We was all right there. We always, in North Carolina, had good neighbors, too, but the houses were further apart.	25:29
Serena Rhodie	Were you a member of any organizations throughout your lifetime? Like not really sororities, but—	25:29
Creola Parker	No. I remember. I was in Glee Club in school, and then I was on the honor roll basically all the way through my school.	25:30
Serena Rhodie	Going back to your work history, after you graduated, after you got your GED, your first job at Sears, can you describe that? That was your first, Sears, right?	26:13
Creola Parker	Yeah. Well, [indistinct 00:26:40] that was about as happy as it was, when I got to one of the main jobs. It was the first job that I got. I trained. I didn't know nothing about the calculator and all that stuff. They trained me in a room. You know how you go in when you've been put in training. I just stayed in there and worked on their cash registers and all that stuff until they felt like I was ready to be put out on the floor. So they put me out in the children's department. I was doing very well until the thing came up with the bank, and I decided I'd rather work for the bank than to stand on my feet for eight hours.	26:33
Serena Rhodie	Can you describe in more detail what you did when you were at the bank?	26:40
Creola Parker	Well, at the bank, you know how you get your account from the bank in a bank statement? I'd [indistinct 00:27:49] those, put them in the statement, and we'd mail them out to the customers. I helped people on the phone, and people in person. We did things on a printed-out statement, and then work on the computer, you know, input anything we had to do, and after that, I got to be the switchboard operator. I did that. I got to the main switchboard where most of the calls came in through, and I distributed them out to the different areas that was the people they wanted.	26:40
Serena Rhodie	Okay. So what have you been doing, I guess, since you've stopped working there? What have you been doing to keep yourself busy, I guess?	28:14
Creola Parker	I had disability. Well, after having this disability, I just been basically going to the mall, and go to church, Bible study, go visit my sister, go visit my cousins. In other words, I'm doing now whatever makes me happy, whatever prolongs my lifespan or whatever makes me happy. That's what I'm doing now, and coming here to the senior center. That's one of my number one now because I enjoy it here. That means I'm around somebody to talk to, and have fun with, and enjoy myself, learn to make different things, and it's just a real friendly atmosphere. I love it. I love all the people here.	28:15
Serena Rhodie	You ever travel, like around the country?	29:26
Creola Parker	No, but if somebody give me the money, I'd do it. That's all I'm lacking is the money, but I used to, before my cousin moved back here to North Carolina, I used to go up there in New York, and visit them, maybe stay a week every summer, but I don't have to do it now because they are here in North Carolina.	29:27
Serena Rhodie	So how did you like New York?	30:16
Creola Parker	Oh, it was fine to visit, but not to stay. No. I would not like to stay there. No, ma'am.	30:17
Serena Rhodie	What didn't you like about it?	30:17
Creola Parker	It was too fast. Everything was just moving too fast. I just didn't like that. I didn't like that.	30:17
Serena Rhodie	You went through all of my questions so fast.	30:17
Creola Parker	Oh.	30:17
Serena Rhodie	We can talk about anything that you are interested in letting people know. I'm trying to think. Maybe, did you play any sports or do anything in your school?	30:54
Creola Parker	I don't know why, but I never got into that. I got to admit it. I didn't like it when I was in school because, like I said, I didn't never watch no basketball or none of that junk. So maybe I didn't like it. I don't know.	31:18
Serena Rhodie	Can you tell me more about your brother and your sister?	31:28
Creola Parker	Well, my sister she lives in Person County. She lives in Roxboro.	31:28
Serena Rhodie	How much younger is she than you?	31:28
Creola Parker	One year.	31:45
Serena Rhodie	One year? What's her name?	31:45
Creola Parker	Ernestine.	31:45
Serena Rhodie	Ernestine?	31:45
Creola Parker	Yeah, Ernestine. [indistinct 00:31:58]	31:46
Serena Rhodie	And your little brother?	31:58
Creola Parker	My brother he's not little. He's bigger than I am, but he lives in Durham. Earl. I'm almost sixty-six, and well, I guess he's right there. I don't know how old is my brother. He was born in '46.	31:58
Serena Rhodie	What is he about sixty or fifty-nine?	31:58
Creola Parker	He was born '46. I do know that. I remember that.	31:58
Serena Rhodie	Can you tell me some stories about when you lived, like a live-in with that family? What sort of stories? Do you have any stories, like some of the play things the kids did or any interesting things? [indistinct 00:32:57]	31:58
Creola Parker	No because it was just like also they went to school, and came home, and—	32:57
Serena Rhodie	Nothing special? Yeah. Okay. We went through so quickly.	32:57
Creola Parker	I'm a fast talker. My daddy would be [indistinct 00:33:30].	32:57
Serena Rhodie	How do you enjoy the Center for Documentary Studies, going there?	33:30
Creola Parker	I love that. I really did. I enjoy looking around, and just [indistinct 00:34:15], and all of that. It was very nice.	34:07
Serena Rhodie	How have you seen, I guess, North Durham or, well, you're from Rougemont. How have you seen that changed over the years? How has it changed?	34:14
Creola Parker	Oh, since I've been in Durham County, it has changed quite a bit because a lot of Durham has been torn down, and a lot of Durham has been built up. It used to be all a bunch of Black businesses over there, and there is none there anymore. Yeah. That Fayetteville Street over there that used to be just Black businesses all up and down there, and it's all torn down now. That's where they've reengineered part of that, it's taking over in there.	34:14
Serena Rhodie	Did you visit Hayti a lot when you were a kid?	34:43
Creola Parker	Yeah. We would go down there, and sometimes we'd go what they called Miranda. That was uptown because they had them good, old hotdogs there. I would get three for a dollar, something like that. So we had all of that.	34:45
Serena Rhodie	What about specifically where you lived? Is it still a really rural farm area or has it become urban?	35:13
Creola Parker	When I married—	35:18
Serena Rhodie	Were you in Rougemont, did you say?	35:18
Creola Parker	Yeah. That house where we lived in, they've torn that down. That's not there anymore. [indistinct 00:35:38] Yeah. It's up near there. Yeah, but that's all right. Excuse me. I have to do what I have to do. You know, this is—my eyes, my nose, my mouth. They did everything right here. Everything comes into here. That's where my sinus and everything drains down in here, so I have to get it out, so it all goes down in here.	35:22
Serena Rhodie	Do you want to talk about the disability?	35:32
Creola Parker	It doesn't matter. I like to tell about that. It started in 1985 and I ignored it, though. My throat just stayed sore. I kept doing everything anybody told me to do. I just done it a year. So I finally went to a doctor, my family doctor. It was up there in Roxboro. And he also—and he also— I'm thinking of something else. I'm not able to concentrate now. I'm hearing somebody else talking. I'm not picking up what they are saying now, but let me see if I can—forget it. The doctor was treating me for a sore throat, so then when that didn't get any better, even doing all of this, he didn't even know what was wrong with my throat, but he was treating me like a sore throat. So one day, I was at work, and then these health fairs—you know how they have a health fair at the mall sometimes.	36:38
Creola Parker	And they were having one, and so I did. I just had to get up and go over to that thing, and they might just see what's wrong with my throat. So when I got over there, the doctor that looked at it he said, "Ms. Parker, you need to see a doctor right now." So he called Person Hospital and made me an appointment. I went over there, and they went right on, and gave me a biopsy. They did a biopsy of my throat, so when I went back, that's when they told me there was a tumor in my throat, and it was malignant, and it didn't even phase them. I guess I was so stunned because I wasn't expecting that. It just didn't even go in what they had just told me. Then I had chemotherapy and radiation for a year, and it drained down, so I didn't have to have surgery, so I went on from then until 1993, and it flared up again, and they had to go in then and take the voice box out. So thank the Lord, from then until now I'm doing fine.	37:22
Creola Parker	So that's '85, '95, then '97. That's twelve years ago because now I'm looking for twelve more good years. All of this was done at Duke University. [indistinct 00:40:28] in there. All of my work here was done out there by some very nice surgeons. I have a very nice oncologist, Dr. Samuel [indistinct 00:40:40] has been attending to me every since I've been a patient out there. [indistinct 00:40:47] I always tell my husband. I say, "It ain't just nothing but me and you out there. Just take me home. Don't take me nowhere else. That's the only hospital I believe in, and I don't want to go nowhere else." I have a friend, and they've been going to Chapel Hill. He had the same thing I had, but he had it on his liver, and he's been going up there.	37:30
Creola Parker	Now, they done changed and going to Duke, and now he says he wished he had went to Duke to start with. I wanted to say, "Well, I tried to tell you that," but everybody goes right up there to Chapel Hill. Why? I don't know. To me, Duke Hospital is the best there is. If they can't do nothing, but let you rot in there, you might as well go on home. That's the way I feel about it.	40:28
Serena Rhodie	Wait. Did you go to Duke Hospital before 1985? Did you go there?	41:30
Creola Parker	Yeah.	41:30
Serena Rhodie	How long have you been going to Duke Hospital?	41:30
Creola Parker	Oh, ever since I've been big enough to know.	41:30
Serena Rhodie	Did you ever go there? You never went to Durham Regional, or Lincoln?	41:30
Creola Parker	Yeah, Durham Regional gave me a hysterectomy. They saw a mass in there that they thought was cancer, and so they went in there and did a hysterectomy. And I was supposed to have stayed in there for three days, and guess how long I was in that hospital. Twenty-nine days. They kept me there. I had to have another surgery. I never wanted to go back there anymore. I never want to go back there anymore.	41:44
Serena Rhodie	Was there a difference in how the doctors and nurses treated you at the Durham Regional?	42:04
Creola Parker	No. They were the same. No. They was the same at both places.	42:43
Serena Rhodie	Did you ever go to, I think, Lincoln Hospital?	42:44
Creola Parker	No. I never did like that.	42:44
Serena Rhodie	Why not?	42:44
Creola Parker	I don't know. I'm just going to say I didn't never like it. I have my reason, but I'm not going to say that.	42:44
Serena Rhodie	Okay. Are you more active in church now in doing things, like usher?	42:58
Creola Parker	I've never been an usher, but I do more things. I did lots of things [indistinct 00:43:32]. [indistinct 00:43:33] everything that I was in on. I'm still there. They didn't remove my name because of this— because I know I still like to talk anyway.	43:24
Serena Rhodie	So what are some of the things that you do?	43:38
Creola Parker	I'm in [indistinct 00:43:50]. I'm in missionary. I'm the treasurer of my Sunday school, a Sunday school member, things like that.	43:38
Serena Rhodie	What are some of the things that the missionaries do?	43:50
Creola Parker	Well, we go around and visit the sick people in nursing homes, and sometimes we take them little packages. Sometimes we take them little things and all of that.	44:05
Serena Rhodie	How about when you were younger? How did you, and your brother and sister interact? Did y'all play together? Did y'all fight?	44:05
Creola Parker	Well, I don't know. With me and my sister we did all right, but by my brother being so much younger than we were, we looked out after him. He wasn't big enough for us to fight. We had to take care of him because we were like big girls when he was born.	44:05
Serena Rhodie	Did he try to tag along with y'all? Did y'all have the responsibility of babysitting him?	44:05
Creola Parker	Yeah. We babysat him. We took care of him because he was our only little brother. Right? Yeah.	44:05

Item Info

Title:

Creola Parker interview recording, 1997 October 20

Date:

October 20, 1997

Creator:

Parker, Creola

Contributor:

Rhodie, Serena

Description:

Name: Creola Cousin Parker; Date of birth: 1934-03-20; Place of birth: Roxboro, NC; Occupation(s): switchboard operator; bank employee; domestic; Residence: Rougemont, NC
Informant ID: 1238; Interviewed by: Serena Rhodie.

Format:

Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South interviews, photographs, and project records, circa 1864-2011, bulk 1990-2004

Series:

Related Resources:

See below

Provenance:

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired the Records of the Behind the Veil Oral History Project from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

Copyright for content created by the Behind the Veil project is held by Duke University and made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC) license.

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-0021
0dba94d6-c111-4f67-8f78-1b5ca1c4d318
behindtheveil
af95c7d8-6029-42e8-a892-398d2c97f876
ark:/87924/r4z039h86
af95c7d8-6029-42e8-a892-398d2c97f876

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4z039h86

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Creola Parker interview recording, 1997 October 20

Transcript

Item Info

1. Creola Parker administrative file, 1997

John Hope Franklin Research Center

More Info & Options

Creola Parker interview recording, 1997 October 20

Transcript

Item Info

Related Items

John Hope Franklin Research Center

More Info & Options