Walter Skyles interview recording, 1995 July 13

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Walter Skyles, Jr.	Walter Alfonso Skyles, Jr.	0:02
Blair Murphy	And you [indistinct 00:00:07].	0:02
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:00:08].	0:02
Blair Murphy	And [indistinct 00:00:12].	0:02
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:00:15] right here [indistinct 00:00:17].	0:14
Blair Murphy	And what was [indistinct 00:00:24].	0:21
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Well, when I was young, it was a lot different than now. You know, when I was so young, I remember basically it was just the place where we grew up. It wasn't a whole lot of violence. When I was real young, when I was going to school, out here was just going to school, going home, working. When you'd come home, you know, cut your grass, we all had something to do.	0:24
Walter Skyles, Jr.	But as I got older, about 14, it got a little bit different then because I was old enough to get a driver license. So, actually during the time it was segregation. It wasn't integration when I was 14, 15 years old. But by me having a car at 15, when I was 16, I was mingling more or less with anybody. I was mingling with a lot of White kids and older folks who had cars. And we got along.	0:52
Walter Skyles, Jr.	We fought a little bit, which we did. All of us fought, it was just fighting, you know, just more fun, in that time. Because if you fight now, you might get shot, cut, whatever. So it's just been a place where you could sleep on the porch, let your kids go out and tell them be home before dark and not worry about whether they'd come home or not. Have [indistinct 00:02:09] come home every time.	1:36
Blair Murphy	Yeah.	2:08
Walter Skyles, Jr.	It's just, from the time I grew up to my adulthood, It was a decent place to live. You know? Even up until, I'll say 1980. It was still a decent place to live around this area. Right around South Hill, actually, that's what we call this neighborhood, alongside South Hill as a whole it was just normal early life. It wasn't anything that you have to worry about when you left home and go to the store, didn't have to worry about anybody doing anything to you, or didn't have to worry about somebody pull up at the corner, come out to your car do you want anything or anything like that. It wasn't anybody jumping in your car, taking your car, and leave. It was just decent living.	2:22
Blair Murphy	So you grew up around in South Hill?	3:30
Walter Skyles, Jr.	I grew up basically around here in South Hill. I was actually born and raised on South Hill.	3:30
Blair Murphy	Okay, so what's defined as South Hill?	3:36
Walter Skyles, Jr.	South Hill is basically from this end all the way to Bainbridge, across Bainbridge. It'll go from basically the street you come on, Rosemont, probably until the first three this way til you up to the north, which is probably Rowland, Rowland Avenue. This whole section was called South Hill.	3:40
Blair Murphy	And it was always all Black?	4:06
Walter Skyles, Jr.	It's always been all Black. Still is. [indistinct 00:04:11] nobody else. It's all Black right now. Yeah. Every now and then we get a White couple moving around one of the house. But it's predominantly Black.	4:08
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:04:28] any South Norfolk.	4:27
Walter Skyles, Jr.	It's North and South Norfolk. It is. Yes. It was South Norfolk. The whole area was South Norfolk first. [indistinct 00:04:37] merged North county [indistinct 00:04:41] okay. And even when [indistinct 00:04:45] to the police [indistinct 00:04:48].	4:30
Blair Murphy	Were they White policemen?	4:45
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Yeah. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. Actually, we got the first two Black police on the force [indistinct 00:04:57] I had more trouble with them than I did the White policemen.	4:51
Blair Murphy	When were they [indistinct 00:05:01] on the force.	5:01
Walter Skyles, Jr.	What year it was. It was probably somewhere around '59. I was thinking about the year the kid who got killed, what year was that, '63. So they came in somewhere around between '60 and '63. Something like that. But other than that, we [indistinct 00:05:27] doing anything or whatever [indistinct 00:05:28] the police [indistinct 00:05:29] us come say something to us. Especially me. They actually called most of the kids by name.	5:03
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm. Because people knew each other?	5:35
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Yeah, policemen. They knew all the kids. [indistinct 00:05:40] different policemen. They could call you by name. Okay [indistinct 00:05:43] tell your daddy when I see him. [indistinct 00:05:45]. But now the policeman is instead of being your friend, he [indistinct 00:05:51]. It's bad to say, but right now, your [indistinct 00:05:59] policeman ain't stopping.	5:40
Blair Murphy	Yeah. So what did your parents do?	6:00
Walter Skyles, Jr.	My parents, they [indistinct 00:06:08].	6:06
Blair Murphy	What was your father doing when you were growing up?	6:11
Walter Skyles, Jr.	When I was growing up, he used to work at Robson fertilizer plant. [indistinct 00:06:18] store. Some [indistinct 00:06:22] it was a store like you go in about just for anything like sodas. Anything basically. Yeah, something like a grocery store. And [indistinct 00:06:35]. And basically, that's what I do a lot [indistinct 00:06:43] that he started when I was about 14 [indistinct 00:06:49].	6:25
Blair Murphy	So how did he get interested in owning businesses or [indistinct 00:06:57].	6:53
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Renting property? A Jew named Mose Lasser, he knew him and he'd give him a piece of property, right? Call him and tell him "I got a piece of property, I want you to take it." He always financed it for him so it was just a matter of him doing the—Dad used to do remodels, do the work for him and he just got to where he would call and tell us the house he had and he [indistinct 00:07:25]. And that's all [indistinct 00:07:29].	6:57
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm. So is this your [indistinct 00:07:36].	7:28
Walter Skyles, Jr.	This is.	7:35
Blair Murphy	So you [indistinct 00:07:39].	7:38
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Mm-hmm. [indistinct 00:07:40] sure he's the basic mechanic. He started with me in '79 I think when we used to work for [indistinct 00:07:51] old enough to grow up [indistinct 00:07:56]. [indistinct 00:07:59] him being younger, he's probably the better of the mechanics in a sense.	7:38
Blair Murphy	So where did you go to school?	8:06
Walter Skyles, Jr.	George Washington Carver. First [indistinct 00:08:11] went to school up here in South Hill [indistinct 00:08:15].	8:12
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:08:16].	8:14
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Yeah. Yeah. [indistinct 00:08:19] Washington Carver.	8:18
Blair Murphy	So what was it like going to school?	8:25
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Oh, goodness. Going to school is basically it was fun. It was basically nothing [indistinct 00:08:43] you know you going to school to meet some friends. You know you going to school [indistinct 00:08:44] you know you get to come home. [indistinct 00:08:48] you go to school you don't know if you coming home. So basically my whole [indistinct 00:08:53] was [indistinct 00:08:55] a complaint [indistinct 00:08:56] coming up.	8:37
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Everything back then to me was perfect. We didn't have the problems that the kids have now. Kids now [indistinct 00:09:05]. They got [indistinct 00:09:08] society doesn't have anything to offer them. And [indistinct 00:09:17] that way [indistinct 00:09:17] what you call bad kids. Because the same kids that's in jail now if they had come up, some of them now, if they had come up during the '60s, or the '50s—the mid '50s and '60s, they'd have been good kids. Same kids they call them bad kids now, that's in jail, if they had came up in a different time, they would probably would never be in jail.	8:57
Blair Murphy	Why do you think? What's the difference?	9:46
Walter Skyles, Jr.	It's a big difference in society, okay? Black kids didn't know anything about drugs basically until probably—When I say Black kids, I mean as a whole, not all of them. But you figure in 1980, Black kids not heard about it or seen it, little White kids, there was no such thing. And I thought I was wrong. Okay.	9:51
Walter Skyles, Jr.	And some of the stuff they got now, they would ask me about, I would—[indistinct 00:10:30] because of the stuff that is actually here. The kids just don't have a chance. They don't know [indistinct 00:10:38] what to do. Every time you go out on the street, a pair of sneakers, we used to get sneakers, our momma used to buy us sneakers. And we came home with a pair of new sneakers or something, we had to tell her where it came from. Now the kids get a hundred-something dollar sneakers and two or three hundred dollars, (phone rings) they get—hold on.	10:21
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[INTERRUPTION 00:11:00]	11:00
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Okay. I'm trying to figure where I stopped from where I was saying. Basically, the kids now know more, it's more, they get a pair of sneakers, they buy sneakers for $125, $30. See them walk around with them. One kid got them, the other kid want them. So all they got to do is get lucky enough to pick up $35, $40 and buy a little stone, cut it in half, sell it three or four times, then they got enough to buy a pair of sneakers, tennis. So it just gets easier.	11:00
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Okay, so this is it. Easy living. Sell stones, make more money, get more stones. And when you keep going, that's what it is, the drug dealers, okay? If the kids don't pick like this from older people, they enter this drug scene, little kid, "hey, you want to make some money? Come on." You don't need to go to school, they don't want to go to school no more because they can sell drugs.	11:42
Blair Murphy	Do you think it has something to do with the changes in discipline?	12:07
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Well, I'm not going to try put it on parents, for discipline. It's got a lot to do with it because the parents—I can't put it on the parents, because I know too many good parents that kids are doing the things that if they knew what they was doing, they would probably shoot them.	12:10
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm.	12:27
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Okay. But it's not all at home. But a lot of kids, because the parents do not know where the kids are all the time. Okay [indistinct 00:12:36] they don't have rules that they can follow. Because one thing, when we was coming up, if Sally told my momma that I did such and such a thing, I get a beating when I got home. Now if a kid did something and the mother saw them, they better not beat them, because society has [indistinct 00:12:57] so we cannot punish our kids. [indistinct 00:13:00] 911 and we locked up. Okay.	12:27
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:13:05] parents used to watch out for everybody else's kids.	13:05
Walter Skyles, Jr.	When we was coming up, you didn't get a beating by your parent, you got a beating by who all saw you do it, then you got another beating when you got home. Okay, that's the way it's been, and it was a neighborhood thing. And I don't think it's just here. I think it's been somewhere everywhere. I met guys that come up and that's my age or whatever, you get to talking to somebody, they'd tell you the same thing. Ms. Whoever would beat you if you did, and call your momma and tell her that she beat you. Then you'd get another beating for it too. But now, the parents can't, so you know the neighbor cannot. And it's for real. And they need to change it—because child abuse, that's what they call it. It's child neglect. That's what it is. You cannot punish your kid, it's child neglect.	13:06
Walter Skyles, Jr.	And society has done this, and they're doing it to the kids, because they're making the kids what they are. But they're blaming the kids, they're building more jails they can put the kids at instead of putting them or taking them places where they try to help [indistinct 00:14:09] they try to lock kids up. And they [indistinct 00:14:12] raise the kids but they take all the—	13:49
Blair Murphy	Ability.	14:16
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Ability for the parents to raise them away from them. We had to [indistinct 00:14:27] because the government, or the city, or whoever telling you, you can't beat them, then you got a problem. [indistinct 00:14:35] good kids. When they bad kids, you beat them. You can't tell them that you go in a room and stay. You might [indistinct 00:14:42]. And the bad part about it, it got so darn [indistinct 00:14:47] now you might got one 15 years old and you say jump, and he'll tell you, "You jump first." And if you act like you going to hit him, you might get hurt. So it's bad.	14:16
Blair Murphy	So kids are more [indistinct 00:15:00] more fear of their parents.	14:58
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Not more, they had fear. It was a different fear, it wasn't fear because [indistinct 00:15:08] they was mean to you, but you knew that they demanded right. [indistinct 00:15:16] to know that if you did wrong, you was punished. [indistinct 00:15:19] told if you do the crime, you got to do the time. So when we went home, we had to do whatever the time [indistinct 00:15:27]. So that's [indistinct 00:15:29] raised up.	15:03
Walter Skyles, Jr.	And [indistinct 00:15:36] change. It's not. It's going to get worse. I hate to see it. I'm afraid that [indistinct 00:15:47] 40 years old [indistinct 00:15:48] she reaches 21 years old. We think it's bad now [indistinct 00:15:55] real bad. I think it'll be [indistinct 00:16:12] afraid to [indistinct 00:16:12] go in her house.	15:30
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:16:12] everybody [indistinct 00:16:12] already [indistinct 00:16:12]. And [indistinct 00:16:12]. To a certain extent [indistinct 00:16:18] okay because you don't know who have a gun and what [indistinct 00:16:23] young punks now thinking they think [indistinct 00:16:25] got guns. They used to [indistinct 00:16:27] a kid give somebody a ride. You stop and pick somebody up now, you going [indistinct 00:16:35] for Portsmouth, you might wind up in New York. That's the basic [indistinct 00:16:45] because you don't know what to do is—Coming up for me was a dream. Coming up for me was easy. It was easy to do right [indistinct 00:16:58].	16:12
Blair Murphy	I was over on the other side, it seems like the highway [indistinct 00:17:05].	16:59
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:17:07] basically back then [indistinct 00:17:11] be there about [indistinct 00:17:14] there in [indistinct 00:17:18]. It was probably in the early '80s, something like that, the interstate came in and separated [indistinct 00:17:29] South Hill. We used to go from one end [indistinct 00:17:35]. And they could [indistinct 00:17:37]. So it's a lot of houses [indistinct 00:17:41]. Right now, all the older people [indistinct 00:17:45] either died, or most of the older people, older generation died. And so a lot of people [indistinct 00:17:53] born and raised here. When I was coming up, everybody was originally from [indistinct 00:17:59]. So [indistinct 00:18:05] for us [indistinct 00:18:07] to do [indistinct 00:18:08]. We always had something to do, we played baseball, football, stuff like that. Kids don't do that now. They don't do it in school [indistinct 00:18:15]. But we had recreation baseball [indistinct 00:18:18].	17:07
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:18:19].	18:14
Walter Skyles, Jr.	No, we got teams. [indistinct 00:18:23] something to do with it. We had recreational [indistinct 00:18:28]. But now you go to the rec and stuff like that, they got some things [indistinct 00:18:34] set up for them. But it's not as much as it was when we was growing up [indistinct 00:18:43].	18:20
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm.	18:50
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Now actually I think [indistinct 00:18:50] because it's [indistinct 00:18:50] everything is—It's bad. [indistinct 00:18:56] people really don't—Kids are more dangerous now than the adults.	18:54
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm.	19:01
Walter Skyles, Jr.	It's bad. When we was coming up, a kid wasn't anything to even think about. Not to adult [indistinct 00:19:07] adult you [indistinct 00:19:10] kid [indistinct 00:19:12]. But now you can say something to a kid, he might pull out a nine and you history. [indistinct 00:19:18] we was coming up, you didn't see a kid with a gun. Kid with a gun, he stole his daddy gun from out the house and he get [indistinct 00:19:25]. See, now every kid you know has got a gun. [indistinct 00:19:32] difference.	19:01
Blair Murphy	Do you remember any racial incidents?	19:33
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:19:38].	19:35
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:19:39] Whites.	19:38
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Yeah, that was during the time we was coming up, it was more or less—It was racial but it was not—Well, actually, the don't have it as much now as they did when we was coming up. When we was coming back [indistinct 00:19:54] is this way, South [indistinct 00:19:55] this way [indistinct 00:19:56] South Hill. Okay. [indistinct 00:20:00] park was [indistinct 00:20:03] predominantly White. You had predominantly White neighborhood, predominantly Black neighborhood.	19:39
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:20:08].	20:06
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Oh, yeah, we was in the middle. So it's one of those things that we go to Portsmouth, we might have to fight to get back home. But when they came through here, we did the same thing. So, but it was a fight. In other words, nobody shoot nobody, we'd fight. And we go out on the ballfield, to play football or whatever. But when we get through playing football, there's a fight. Okay, but it was part of coming up. With the same guys you fought with yesterday, we'd go out and play football again tomorrow. So it was one of those things, it was a racial thing to a certain extent.	20:09
Walter Skyles, Jr.	And I can't say that I didn't see it as hard because it was getting ready to break in my teenage years—Not in my teenage years. My teenage years, [indistinct 00:20:56] used to be [indistinct 00:21:01]. That was predominantly White. Black was not supposed to go in there. Foundation Park. Black was not supposed to go in there. You go in there you got to fight. Okay.	20:43
Walter Skyles, Jr.	But I got some of that in 1957, '58, stuff like that, [indistinct 00:21:24] was built [indistinct 00:21:28], someone said, if a Black went to [indistinct 00:21:30] he would burn it down. Okay, that was before the end of racial [indistinct 00:21:34] was also ending. Integration came after I was in school, I wasn't in school for integration. But all of my kids basically went to school, went to integrated schools. And they never had really any racial problems. And I can say [indistinct 00:21:50] as a whole, I don't think it's really [indistinct 00:21:54] real racial issue. [indistinct 00:21:58] ran into it. I ran into White folks calling me niggers, but that was normal.	21:09
Walter Skyles, Jr.	But it was [indistinct 00:22:02] had a lot of trouble with it. So I can't [indistinct 00:22:20]. And I [indistinct 00:22:20] anybody. Any of the guys that's basically grew up with me [indistinct 00:22:22]. Because as a rule, most of them, whether you [indistinct 00:22:29] baseball and football with them anyway [indistinct 00:22:31] we now [indistinct 00:22:32]. So [indistinct 00:22:37] most of them ballparks and [indistinct 00:22:41] we got cars and always [indistinct 00:22:43]. So [indistinct 00:22:43] walk in with us [indistinct 00:22:43] on us.	22:01
Blair Murphy	Were there Black businesses like where your father had his store, and then [indistinct 00:23:10].	22:43
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Okay. Where the store was, it was all Black businesses. It was [indistinct 00:23:14] cleaners, a little dance hall, little poolroom. Your grocery store, we had a grocery store, but that was owned by White. [indistinct 00:23:27] grocery store [indistinct 00:23:29] he was White. But [indistinct 00:23:32] South Hill. And most of his customers were Black. [indistinct 00:23:42] basically, it could have been mixed. We had [indistinct 00:23:44] that was owned by [indistinct 00:23:45]. So basically, we had [indistinct 00:23:50] one section that [indistinct 00:23:54] probably, I'd say something like a block of—A football field length wise of businesses.	23:10
Walter Skyles, Jr.	On one side [indistinct 00:24:08] two businesses on the other side that was Black. And [indistinct 00:24:15] was basically in this area particularly [indistinct 00:24:17] Black businesses. You had two stores up the street, up on the other side of the hill. But that was basically all it was [indistinct 00:24:25].	24:06
Blair Murphy	So would you go to the pool hall [indistinct 00:24:29].	24:25
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:24:30].	24:25
Blair Murphy	Yeah. Did you ever go to [indistinct 00:24:32].	24:30
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was basically some of the places we would go. Dance halls wasn't a—[indistinct 00:24:39] he go to the dance halls usually [indistinct 00:24:44] play music but [indistinct 00:24:45] going to a club. It was just a little [indistinct 00:24:54] nick nacks, and it was a dance floor. So that was basically [indistinct 00:25:06] we called a dance hall [indistinct 00:25:07]. Huh?	24:32
Blair Murphy	As a teenager you [indistinct 00:25:07].	25:06
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Mm-hmm. [indistinct 00:25:07]. We had a pool hall [indistinct 00:25:08] pool tables, and we'd go in there and play pool. At the time, I think you had to be a certain age to even go in it, in the pool hall [indistinct 00:25:17]. We knew everybody [indistinct 00:25:22] certain age. During that time [indistinct 00:25:33]. [indistinct 00:25:33] pool hall [indistinct 00:25:33] pool table [indistinct 00:25:33].	25:06
Blair Murphy	And the pool hall was for when you were adults.	25:33
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:25:45] adults, something like that.	25:33
Blair Murphy	And would you go into [indistinct 00:25:50].	25:49
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Oh, yeah. Yeah. Usually on the weekend [indistinct 00:25:56] movies. So the movies was either Berkley or [indistinct 00:26:00]. So [indistinct 00:26:02] Berkeley to this theater, mostly on the weekend [indistinct 00:26:07].	25:51
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:26:10].	26:04
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Uh-uh. It was White.	26:11
Blair Murphy	It was the same theater?	26:12
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Mm-hmm. Yeah. [indistinct 00:26:18] White people. And they had a movie on [indistinct 00:26:25] I think the [indistinct 00:26:26]. The movies was mixed. They were segregated. Yeah, they stayed segregated for a long time. Then when they finally integrated, when they did the integration thing, that's when the movies started getting integrated. [indistinct 00:26:41]. But [indistinct 00:26:44].	26:12
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:26:45] sit in segregated movies.	26:44
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Well, there were White folks in there.	26:45
Blair Murphy	Oh. So you had segregated showings?	26:49
Walter Skyles, Jr.	No, the whole movie.	26:49
Blair Murphy	Oh.	26:49
Walter Skyles, Jr.	White folks just didn't go there period.	26:51
Blair Murphy	Oh, so it was White owned.	26:57
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Mm-hmm.	26:58
Blair Murphy	But it [indistinct 00:27:00].	26:58
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Yeah, see, because it was basically a Black neighborhood.	27:02
Blair Murphy	Oh.	27:04
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:27:05].	27:04
Blair Murphy	Right.	27:04
Walter Skyles, Jr.	People. Okay, there was White businesses there, mostly Jews. Okay. Grammar Street, you can find movies and they were White only [indistinct 00:27:16].	27:04
Blair Murphy	Oh, okay.	27:16
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:27:22].	27:16
Blair Murphy	So there were separate movie theaters, but Black people didn't own any of them.	27:22
Walter Skyles, Jr.	No, we didn't own much of them—because like, buses, I can't really remember any, to a certain extent. I think when I was coming up, that everybody did go to the back of the bus. The bus, you know, go sit in the back, of a certain—You know, I really—I never realized it. You know, it never crossed my mind, I mean. During the time it was normal, if it was, there. Because I remember when they started arguing about sitting on the bus. Okay, but it wasn't a big issue during that time, you know, you get on the bus, you sit, you stand in the back. But we never had a problem with it. We used to sometimes catch the bus to the end, you can get a ride. [Indistinct 00:28:22] and guarantee you get a ride. But now you can't—I wouldn't even now pick a kid up unless I knew him.	27:26
Blair Murphy	Okay. And where did your family go to church?	28:25
Walter Skyles, Jr.	First Baptist [indistinct 00:28:36]. I was born and raised at First Baptist.	28:35
Blair Murphy	So if you would go shopping [indistinct 00:28:53].	28:49
Walter Skyles, Jr.	When I was coming up, you'd go down off, and sneak—Basically when you were young, we went basically to L. Snyders, which would have been on City Hall, or you could go on Granby Street. We went shopping up there uptown with the White people. That was the only place there was shopping at. So mostly, that's what we did, all the way up to Granby Street.	28:55
Blair Murphy	And that's in Norfolk?	29:16
Walter Skyles, Jr.	We had to go over to Norfolk, they didn't have any shopping centers here.	29:16
Blair Murphy	Okay.	29:16
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Yeah.	29:16
Blair Murphy	So would they let Black people try on clothes and stuff like that?	29:26
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, good gracious. Yeah. I think, I can't say how long it's been doing it, but I never know—any time we had walked over [indistinct 00:29:41] us, we went in the dressing room, alone.	29:36
Blair Murphy	Okay. Because my mama said something one time about Black people couldn't try on hats and shoes. Only Whites could do that.	29:41
Walter Skyles, Jr.	It's possible. But I know as kids, we did. So I don't know.	29:41
Blair Murphy	It all depends on what area.	29:41
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Yeah. That [indistinct 00:30:05] because I know [indistinct 00:30:06] my mother, she always tried on hers.	30:06
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm.	30:07
Walter Skyles, Jr.	So you used to sit on a little bench. Sit down on a stool, put your feet up on the little thing and measure your feet. I remember that.	30:07
Blair Murphy	So were you grandparents alive when you were real little?	30:21
Walter Skyles, Jr.	When I was a kid. Now, my grandmothers were. My grandfather I never knew.	30:30
Blair Murphy	So do you remember what they did? Were they from around here as well?	30:33
Walter Skyles, Jr.	For a while, they were here, they wasn't born here.	30:40
Blair Murphy	Where were they from?	30:44
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Oh, goodness, that's going to be hard. It's hard to say, because my mother was born on the Eastern Shore. So—	30:50
Blair Murphy	Some of your family moved over here?	30:53
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Yeah, but it's kind of touchy to try to pick it, because some of them— I know my grandmother had people in Seaboard, North Carolina. So I don't know where my grandfather come from, Eastern Shore and—I don't know.	30:56
Blair Murphy	Mm-hmm.	31:14
Walter Skyles, Jr.	[indistinct 00:31:15] move around [indistinct 00:31:15] because they did a lot of leaving one side and going over to Eastern Shore to work in certain seasons. So it's hard to figure out.	31:17
Blair Murphy	What did they do over in Eastern Shore?	31:23
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Seem like they had a lot of farms, picking potatoes and stuff like that. I forget. It was stuff like that. Migrating labor. Yeah. And I was just one of those blessed kids. I never had a hard day in my life when I was coming up. So I'll be thanking Christ for that. Yeah.	31:27
Blair Murphy	And how many brothers and sisters did you say you had?	31:51
Walter Skyles, Jr.	I had one brother and one sister.	31:54
Blair Murphy	[indistinct 00:31:57].	31:55
Walter Skyles, Jr.	Brother dead. [Indistinct 00:31:59] sister [indistinct 00:32:00].	31:58
Blair Murphy	All right. Well, thank you.	32:03

Item Info

Title:

Walter Skyles interview recording, 1995 July 13

Date:

July 13, 1995

Creator:

Skyles, Walter Alfonso

Contributor:

Murphy, Blair

Description:

Name: Walter Alfonso Skyles; Date of birth: 1941-03-07; Place of birth: Norfolk Co., VA; Occupation(s): mechanic; carpenter; Residence: Chesapeake, VA
Informant ID: 1264; Interviewed by: Blair Murphy.

Occupation:

Location:

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-1368
059ea7ae-eebb-4003-b858-be808a07f649
behindtheveil
f4f6fb28-5cad-4ddb-92b8-3767266427db
ark:/87924/r4z60qb3f
f4f6fb28-5cad-4ddb-92b8-3767266427db

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4z60qb3f

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Walter Skyles interview recording, 1995 July 13

Transcript

Item Info

1. Walter Skyles administrative file, 1995

John Hope Franklin Research Center

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Walter Skyles interview recording, 1995 July 13

Transcript

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John Hope Franklin Research Center

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