Dublin Core
Title
Oral history with Pamela Boardley
Subject
[no text]
Description
An oral history interview conducted with Pamela Boardley by Eli Pousson as part of an IMPART funded oral history research project.
Creator
[no text]
Source
[no text]
Publisher
[no text]
Date
20-Jun-07
Contributor
[no text]
Rights
[no text]
Relation
[no text]
Format
digital
Language
[no text]
Type
[no text]
Identifier
[no text]
Coverage
[no text]
Contribution Form
Online Submission
No
Posting Consent
[no text]
Submission Consent
[no text]
Contributor is Creator
[no text]
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Eli Pousson
Interviewee
Pamela Weems Boardley
Location
[no text]
Transcription
00:00 – 2:35 Pamela Weems Boardley is interested in community, has desire to keep the few remaining residents in Lakeland. She was born in Washington, D.C. and moved to Lakeland when she was 3 months old. Her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were from Lakeland. She lived up the street from her present home with her great-grandmother, and she moved to current home when she was 5.
2:35 – 3:53 When she was a kid, there was no running water and her mama washed with well water, but they got running water soon after. The well was in backyard, and is still there but is closed up.
3:53 – 5:54 As a child, she and her siblings played a lot in the yard, friends would come over, and they “didn’t venture out too muchâ€. They “made the best of what we hadâ€, played in the woods, their father build a playhouse and treehouse. There were more woods back then, and the street was unpaved and muddy. She lived across the street from Lakeland Elementary school, which is now a church. Next door, where there are now two brand-new houses, there used to be a wheat field next door, then a construction company. She mentions trains and streetcar tracks.
5:54 – 9:10 Ms. Boardley attended Lakeland Elementary and Junior High School. For high school, she went to Fairmount Heights. The schools weren’t integrated, and it was the only black high school in the area, and kids came from far away. The high school was close-knit. She took a bus to high school; it was approximately a 35 minutes commute.
9:10 – 12:05 She visited other African American communities because of sports and teen clubs. On May 2, there was a boat ride for all of the teen clubs and there was dancing and entertainment. Pamela played softball, and she traveled to different fields. Summer recreation was held at school. Thursdays was family night, and parents would come and socialize, have hot dogs and soda.
12:05 – 15:20 Pamela Weems Boardley’s father worked for Miracle Press on Rhode Island Ave, and for Citizen’s Bank of Maryland, transporting money between banks. He also used his old truck to pick up trash and newspapers to make extra money for Christmas gifts. She never felt like they were poor, never went hungry. She said that it seemed like everyone in Lakeland was on an “equal basisâ€, although there may have been a few people that had more. “But as children, we always felt equal, nobody felt they were better than the otherâ€. Kids were very protective of one another. Her neighbors were the Campbells, and the Dorys and they still live in the houses.
15:20 – 20:45 In order to get down to D.C., you could drive or take the streetcar, and you could catch the streetcar in Berwyn or at Rhode Island Ave. The transfer point was at Mt. Rainer, though she didn’t venture into Mt. Rainer because she had no reason to, they were white kids and she didn’t go to school with them. But there were also whites that lived behind them – woods between Berwyn and Lakeland. She mentions that there were a lot of businesses on Rt. 1 that she never went into because she didn’t think that she was welcome as an African American. “I had no reason to go in thereâ€. There weren’t overt signs of segregation, and she used to ride her bike to Berwyn to shop at a gift shop, and the kids didn’t bother her. “I never witnessed anyone telling me that I can’t.†But the CVS, which used to be a People’s Drug Store on Rt. 1, had a food counter, and she knew that she wasn’t supposed to sit there, so she didn’t. She also mentions Murphy’s 5 and 10 in D.C., where you could stand at counter, but couldn’t sit. She doesn’t remember when that changed, either as an adult or teenager. She graduated in 1964, and integration happened maybe 2 years later.
20:45 – 34:00 Ms. Boardley attended Johnson Business School in D.C. She wanted to go to college, but her mother discouraged her. She worked at a drafting firm in College Park, and C&P Telephone Company in D.C. She took the bus to work, and also used to take the Greyhound bus into D.C. She mentions getting paved streets and sidewalks when she was a kid – she remembers roller-skating on the streets. Urban renewal came through when she was an adult, she had moved away then. She saw it as a “means of bettering your community as far as your yards, making people get rid of trash, you couldn’t burn trash like you could on your property, people had pigs and chickens, and those things…some people still had outhouses, they had to bring electricity, running water in their homes, people had abandoned cars. You had to keep your house up.†She said that there was supposed to be housing for the people on east side of the streetcar tracks, but that didn’t happen – “lost a lot of people that wayâ€. She moved away, but came back to Lakeland for church every Sunday, as an adult. Growing up, “Sunday morning was a special time†because her father worked all the time and he didn’t work on Sunday. Everyone ate breakfast and Sunday dinner together, Mom would make “homemade rolls, chicken and gravy, fried potatoes and onions,†and her extended family would join them for Sunday dinner. Her maternal grandmother, great grandmother, and father grew up on Navahoe, before the street pattern changed with urban renewal.
37:17 – 43:00 Discussion of civic organizations; her mother was a part of a civic association, but she spoke mainly about the current civic association.
43:00 - 47:46 Ms. Boardley talks about changes in Lakeland, particularly the introduction of drugs in the community. There weren’t any when she was growing up; she’s noticed it in the past 3-4 years. Positive changes include upkeep of properties, and as an example she talks about how people used to keep chickens. Her great-grandmother kept chickens in her yard, and her great-aunt would wring the necks and they’d have “good eatingsâ€.
47:46 - 51:00 She talks about the teachings of her great-grandmother – “She always told people to stand tall, hold your head upâ€, and she would sit on the porch and instruct Ms. Boardley on how to be polite. Growing up they had ‘good old fun, clean timeâ€; she didn’t know she was poor, because they always had food to eat. She gave an example of how her mother would make a chicken last for three meals, and the last day would make individual chicken pot pies for the kids, and they could watch Gladiators on TV while eating dinner. “That was a treat!â€
51:00 – 53:38 Ms. Boardley and her siblings always wore the best shoes, they’d get them at a
fine store, and they also had the “best of clothes†because her mama was a seamstress, so “she could sew out of this worldâ€, and their clothes didn’t look homemade. She thinks her parents did a great job taking care of her and her siblings.
2:35 – 3:53 When she was a kid, there was no running water and her mama washed with well water, but they got running water soon after. The well was in backyard, and is still there but is closed up.
3:53 – 5:54 As a child, she and her siblings played a lot in the yard, friends would come over, and they “didn’t venture out too muchâ€. They “made the best of what we hadâ€, played in the woods, their father build a playhouse and treehouse. There were more woods back then, and the street was unpaved and muddy. She lived across the street from Lakeland Elementary school, which is now a church. Next door, where there are now two brand-new houses, there used to be a wheat field next door, then a construction company. She mentions trains and streetcar tracks.
5:54 – 9:10 Ms. Boardley attended Lakeland Elementary and Junior High School. For high school, she went to Fairmount Heights. The schools weren’t integrated, and it was the only black high school in the area, and kids came from far away. The high school was close-knit. She took a bus to high school; it was approximately a 35 minutes commute.
9:10 – 12:05 She visited other African American communities because of sports and teen clubs. On May 2, there was a boat ride for all of the teen clubs and there was dancing and entertainment. Pamela played softball, and she traveled to different fields. Summer recreation was held at school. Thursdays was family night, and parents would come and socialize, have hot dogs and soda.
12:05 – 15:20 Pamela Weems Boardley’s father worked for Miracle Press on Rhode Island Ave, and for Citizen’s Bank of Maryland, transporting money between banks. He also used his old truck to pick up trash and newspapers to make extra money for Christmas gifts. She never felt like they were poor, never went hungry. She said that it seemed like everyone in Lakeland was on an “equal basisâ€, although there may have been a few people that had more. “But as children, we always felt equal, nobody felt they were better than the otherâ€. Kids were very protective of one another. Her neighbors were the Campbells, and the Dorys and they still live in the houses.
15:20 – 20:45 In order to get down to D.C., you could drive or take the streetcar, and you could catch the streetcar in Berwyn or at Rhode Island Ave. The transfer point was at Mt. Rainer, though she didn’t venture into Mt. Rainer because she had no reason to, they were white kids and she didn’t go to school with them. But there were also whites that lived behind them – woods between Berwyn and Lakeland. She mentions that there were a lot of businesses on Rt. 1 that she never went into because she didn’t think that she was welcome as an African American. “I had no reason to go in thereâ€. There weren’t overt signs of segregation, and she used to ride her bike to Berwyn to shop at a gift shop, and the kids didn’t bother her. “I never witnessed anyone telling me that I can’t.†But the CVS, which used to be a People’s Drug Store on Rt. 1, had a food counter, and she knew that she wasn’t supposed to sit there, so she didn’t. She also mentions Murphy’s 5 and 10 in D.C., where you could stand at counter, but couldn’t sit. She doesn’t remember when that changed, either as an adult or teenager. She graduated in 1964, and integration happened maybe 2 years later.
20:45 – 34:00 Ms. Boardley attended Johnson Business School in D.C. She wanted to go to college, but her mother discouraged her. She worked at a drafting firm in College Park, and C&P Telephone Company in D.C. She took the bus to work, and also used to take the Greyhound bus into D.C. She mentions getting paved streets and sidewalks when she was a kid – she remembers roller-skating on the streets. Urban renewal came through when she was an adult, she had moved away then. She saw it as a “means of bettering your community as far as your yards, making people get rid of trash, you couldn’t burn trash like you could on your property, people had pigs and chickens, and those things…some people still had outhouses, they had to bring electricity, running water in their homes, people had abandoned cars. You had to keep your house up.†She said that there was supposed to be housing for the people on east side of the streetcar tracks, but that didn’t happen – “lost a lot of people that wayâ€. She moved away, but came back to Lakeland for church every Sunday, as an adult. Growing up, “Sunday morning was a special time†because her father worked all the time and he didn’t work on Sunday. Everyone ate breakfast and Sunday dinner together, Mom would make “homemade rolls, chicken and gravy, fried potatoes and onions,†and her extended family would join them for Sunday dinner. Her maternal grandmother, great grandmother, and father grew up on Navahoe, before the street pattern changed with urban renewal.
37:17 – 43:00 Discussion of civic organizations; her mother was a part of a civic association, but she spoke mainly about the current civic association.
43:00 - 47:46 Ms. Boardley talks about changes in Lakeland, particularly the introduction of drugs in the community. There weren’t any when she was growing up; she’s noticed it in the past 3-4 years. Positive changes include upkeep of properties, and as an example she talks about how people used to keep chickens. Her great-grandmother kept chickens in her yard, and her great-aunt would wring the necks and they’d have “good eatingsâ€.
47:46 - 51:00 She talks about the teachings of her great-grandmother – “She always told people to stand tall, hold your head upâ€, and she would sit on the porch and instruct Ms. Boardley on how to be polite. Growing up they had ‘good old fun, clean timeâ€; she didn’t know she was poor, because they always had food to eat. She gave an example of how her mother would make a chicken last for three meals, and the last day would make individual chicken pot pies for the kids, and they could watch Gladiators on TV while eating dinner. “That was a treat!â€
51:00 – 53:38 Ms. Boardley and her siblings always wore the best shoes, they’d get them at a
fine store, and they also had the “best of clothes†because her mama was a seamstress, so “she could sew out of this worldâ€, and their clothes didn’t look homemade. She thinks her parents did a great job taking care of her and her siblings.
Original Format
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Duration
53:38
Bit Rate/Frequency
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Time Summary
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