Download [Page] [Document]
mcc-bc1-417
The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 403
used a tub at home for bathing. When the researcher questioned why they would do that, Helen commented maybe it was because the shower stalls had no curtains, or maybe it was because you'd have to stand in line. They liked to bathe at home. The mill also had a school. It was located on Triana where the soccer field is now. In the block just north of it was a movie theater. It was built into a hill, and the movie theater was in the basement, so it had different levels and steps to enter it. Movies cost a dime. Helen said, I went to the movies with my sister when I was little. If you weren't over six years old, you could get in free. I was always small for my age, so my sister would pay for herself and I'd go in free. It cost 10 cents to get in the movies, so my sister could use what was left of the quarter to buy popcorn and a candy bar. We lived in the neighborhood so they [person at the movie theater] knew us, and I kept waiting for somebody to say something about my not being six years old, but nobody ever did. Life in the Rector's Rental House on Parcel A-33 (probably 1Ma903) The House. The Rectors moved into a very small three-room house. It had no electricity. They used oil lamps. Two of the rooms were in the front, opening to a porch that ran the length of the front of the house. The kitchen was a room behind the room on the right side of the front. It had a wood stove. Helen said, “It wasn't fancy.” The house didn't have any screens. Helen said: We didn't have screens, and you had to open the doors and windows to cool off. Before we ate, we had to get a dishtowel and shoo flies outside. When we lived in the mill house, we had screens. Daddy made screens for it and made screens to sell to people. There was a well in the yard. A big cast iron pot was out in the yard. A fire was lit under it to heat water. The one thing that was the same as when they lived in the mill house was that they washed in a round washtub. The Neighbors. Beyond their house to the west was another house. Helen said it was a lot better than their house. You had to walk through the field to get there. Walking to the west that way, there was an artesian well The Artesian Well. Even though the Rectors had a well by the house, sometimes they walked to the artesian well for water. Helen said, “It was good water.” Helen remembers that the water was very cool. When asked to describe the well, Helen said, “What comes to my mind first is the Clampets on The Beverly Hillbillies television show calling the swimming pool the cement pond, because that was what the well looked like, a cement pond.” The artesian well had a cement wall around it that was a few feet high. The children were not allowed to play in it. Helen said, “It dropped off steep from the sides 403 - (4436)