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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 236
A&M. When he went to A&M, he had to stay with some folks down on Franklin Street at first, and then Walter Joiner leased a car and gave him a ride. Alva remembered Mr. Mayberry, an instructor at A&M, getting a bus that took the Black youth to A&M. He said he remembered Walter Joiner driving the bus. Horton School had a baseball club. Most people couldn't afford uniforms. Sometimes they played against a team from Talucah, across the river [near where Somerville is]. They'd sometimes all have a picnic. They took the ferry back and forth across the river. The ferry they took was a rowboat that held three or four people and cost 25 cents to ride. Christmas. At Christmas time his mother fixed a lot of food, and family members visited. When asked the kinds of Christmas gifts the children received, he said blank [cap] pistols, rubber balls, oranges, nuts, and peppermint sticks. He smiled when he recalled the peppermint sticks, saying they were “big around,” and you would take a hammer and crack some off. Alva said: “When we got old enough not to get hurt, we'd get firecrackers from downtown. That was in our early teens. There were programs at the school and church, as well as box suppers and little carnivals.” Toys. Alva said: “Back then children made their own toys. We'd roll a car tire. We'd make a flip [slingshot]. We shot at birds and at cans. We made Johnny walkers [stilts]. We made carts with tin cans for wheels. They had a straight shaft??"axels of wood, tin cans on each side. A cord came up from the wheels up to the handles to steer, a straight piece coming up from the shaft.” Social Interaction. Alva said everyone helped each other. Neighbors watched and helped with each other's children. When people got their work done, they would help others. When asked about interaction with White people, he said they didn't have any White neighbors. The Mail. Alva's family lived on the road in from Farley. Alva remembers having a mailbox by the road. It had a box number and they were on Route 4. Doctors and Illnesses. Alva could not remember any prevalent illnesses. However, he did say his sister, Mildred, died when she was only 11 years old in the late 1920's or early 1930s. Mildred had dysentery; she was taken to a doctor in Huntsville, but she died in her mother's arms on the way home. Family doctors were Dr. Scruggs and Dr. New. Cemetery. Many Jacobs family members are buried in what the Army has named the Jordan-Jacobs Cemetery. 236 - (4269)