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Oral History

Oral History: Dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Arlington Voices the Oral History Collection

Interview with Agnes Quade

In observance of Veteran’s Day, the staff at the Center for Local History present a clip of an oral history interview with Charles and Agnes Quade, who recalls attending the first dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1932. After some research about Sgt. Frank Witchey (spelled Witchie here) we have determined that Mrs. Quade misspoke during her interview and based on her information about meeting the Sergeant, she was actually there on the original dedication date in November 1921 (thank you to an eagle-eyed patron for pointing this out to us!).

In this segment, Mrs. Quade shares her memories of seeing Sergeant Witchey - a man her husband would eventually meet - play Taps at the Unknown Soldier’s tomb.

NARRATOR: Agnes Quade
INTERVIEWER: Theda Nichols
DATE: May 3, 1975

TN: Now, while we’re on the War subject, didn’t you tell me that you had attended the first dedication of the Unknown Soldier in 1932?

AQ: Yes.

TN: Uh-huh.

AQ: I did.

TN: Could you tell me what you remember about that?

AQ: And that was just a wonderful, impressive occasion. I went out to the National Cemetery, to the Amphitheater. And my mother was here from Atlanta, Georgia, at the time – had come 600 miles; and I thought, “Oh, how wonderful [that] we are here for such a solemn day.” It meant so much to everyone.
And when we arrived, out at the Cemetery, I asked one of the men who had charge of the services if it would be possible that we could get a seat.
And he said, “Oh, no!” – that all the seats were taken, and that others – we just didn’t have any room for anyone else in the Amphitheater; we could stand outside, and we could hear, probably.
And I said, “But my mother’s here, and she’s from Atlanta, Georgia.”
He said, “Just a minute, Lady.”
And over he came with two tickets, which I still have – and I treasure! – and brought me a program. And he ushered us in to about the fourth row of the Amphitheater.
And it was a very solemn service. I have Kodak pictures of the first Unknown Soldier’s Tomb – with the wreath, and with the colors, the flags, and the different divisions of the military, which were at that particular service.
And I would like to add there that the man, who was Sgt. Witchie, is a wonderful bugler – played “Taps” that day over the Unknown Soldier’s Tomb – on November the 11th, 1932.
And in several years, my husband happened to meet Sgt. Witchie; and now we have an autographed copy, a picture, framed, of him playing “Taps” at the Unknown Soldier’s Tomb on November the 11th, 1932.

You can find Charles and Agnes Quade’s interview in its entirety at the Center for Local History- VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.2 no.24 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

Oral History: Halloween Shenanigans

Arlington Voices the Oral History Collection

Interview with Shirley Bowman, Courthouse Neighborhood Resident

With Halloween quickly approaching, the staff at the Center for Local History want to share a segment of a particularly interesting story about Halloween in what is now the Courthouse neighborhood of Arlington.

In this clip, taken from a larger interview with narrators Tally and Shirley Bowman, Shirley shares an anecdote about an unnamed neighbor who showed trick-or-treaters silent films from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union - a group that supported, among other things, the prohibition of alcohol.

Only after slightly bribing her son, another neighbor found out that these films about drunkenness and its dangers were being shown to the neighborhood children each Halloween. When Shirley confronted this neighbor, the films stopped.

Additionally, Shirley fondly recalls other neighborhood Halloween traditions, including taking pictures of trick-or-treaters in their costumes.

NARRATOR 1: Tally Bowman
NARRATOR 2: Shirley Bowman (speaking in this clip)
INTERVIEWER: Kate O'Connor
DATE: September 20, 1988

Transcript:

SB: Williams was the not the first people that lived in the house on the other side of Clements. They bought it from an old woman, older woman that was WCTU, do you remember, Women's Christian Temperance Union. Oh, Lord, I haven't said that word.
She used to give Halloween parties to all the children in the neighborhood and show them these movies on people drunk, they were almost like, well they were silent movies was what they were. And these men would get their paychecks and go to a saloon, you know, and then go out and our kids had never seen anything like that and here this was trying to teach them not to do this sort of thing, I guess. I guess that's what it was for.

And it was a couple of Halloweens before we found out, in fact, we didn't know, yeah, they'd gone over there…. You know, the children, she showed them, you know, kids, you don't get too much out of them. You know, she showed some movies. But she had lots of cookies and lots of punch, that's the only thing they would talk about until one day, Jenny Bond came over from Barton Street. She said, "Shirley, Halloween's coming up. Do you know what kind of movies she shows those kids?" And I said, "No. I really don't. But gee whiz, I thought they would be nice movies coming from over there, WCTU, you know, Women's Christian Temperance Union." And she said, "Well you know what happened at our house last night?"

Bill, her oldest boy about seven years old, her husband was late coming home. He was a lawyer in the government and he had a real high job over there. She said, "Well, I wonder what happened to Daddy?" And he said, "Well, maybe he stopped by the saloon and got some beers." And she said, "Where did you get that from?" So on questioning him and
feeding him some ice cream and cake, she found out that he found it over there at the Halloween party. So maybe he stopped by a saloon and was getting a couple of beers.

Well, that put a stop to that. I went over there and talked to her about that. I said, "You know, these families around here are not that type of family."

KO: How did she respond? Did she say why?

SB: Oh, she thought it was great. She had to quit having these parties because she wouldn't stop showing the movies. Everybody laughed. Frances's three daughters used to go down there, you know. I mean, it was funny. But it was something you didn't care anything about, having year after year.

KO: What about Halloween?

SB: Oh, everybody had their lights on. Everybody invited the children into the house. And my mother used to sit right there, she loved Halloween. She had the baskets of goodies and she would give out all the . . . and I would take pictures of the kids and we had a lot of strays too, but we never, not for years, I mean the first years we didn't, it was just neighborhood kids. And then friends away would always bring their children.

You can find Tally and Shirly Bowman's interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History - VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.3 no.9a.

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

Oral History: Interview with Nguyen Ngoc Bich

Vietnam Center Photo

Vietnamese Community Leader

In recognition of Asian and Pacific Island American Heritage Month, for May we are sharing community leader Nguyeb Ngoc Bich's oral history describing the Vietnamese refugee community in Arlington from roughly 1975 to 1980.

During that 5-year period, the U.S. population of Vietnamese immigrants - many of whom were refugees - had grown from 15,000 to 245,000. At the same time, the Clarendon neighborhood was transformed from a declining shopping destination to a supportive and bustling enclave, brimming with stores that provided both imported goods and a sense of community for Vietnamese-Americans. This area became known informally as “Little Saigon.”

But as construction on the Metro was completed and leases expired, Vietnamese business owners moved west to the Eden Center in Falls Church. This move was spearheaded by Nguyen Ngoc Bich, who had first come to the U.S. in the 1950s as a student.

In this clip, Mr. Bich describes the economic and social contexts of the rise of Little Saigon.

NARRATOR: Nguyen Ngoc Bich
INTERVIEWER: Andrea Dono
DATE: November 9, 2014

Transcript:

AD: Did you call it Little Saigon, or did you have another name for that area?

NNB: Little Saigon. Well, because before April 1975 the whole Vietnamese community in the Washington area was probably no more than about 3,000 people. But nonetheless, these three thousand people became the anchor for family. For instance, our family became the anchor for trying to resettle these twenty-some people that we brought from Vietnam and so on and so forth. Because of the fall of South Vietnam the embassy had to close. Then these people also have to find some way to make a living, and so a secretary there at the Embassy of Vietnam, her name is Zu Mak Zu (?), she was the very first one to open what you call the Saigon Market on Wilson Boulevard in the Clarendon area.
I think we were sort of lucky in a sense at the time. They were talking about building the Metro, and so they tore down a lot of things in the Clarendon area, and so the real estate became very, very cheap. Many of the major American establishments moved out. And because of that some of this real estate became available for very cheap. But they gave you a very short contract, like six months or one quarter.

AD: Were most of the buildings in that Little Saigon area mostly commercial, or were there some social services as well?

NNB: No, mostly commercial because the social services for the refugees tend to be run out of American establishments like the US CC, US Catholic Conference, the Catholic university or the Lutheran Services that are on 16th Street. In fact, the Lutheran Services is only three blocks away from the Vietnamese Buddhist temple up there. While most of the things are here, businesses, restaurants, tailor shop, photo shop, jewelry store, bridal things, we had all that. We all congregated around the Clarendon area. At one point we might have—I don’t think maybe 100, probably not 100, easily 70 or 80 establishments that catered to Vietnamese customers. And so a trip to Clarendon gets you not only to go and get what you need but also run into a lot of friends, new friends that we make, and that became the core of the community in this area.

You can find Nguyen Ngoc Bich’s interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History - VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.12 no.1. Photo: Vietnam Center Clarendon, Source: Photographs of the Arlington Historical Society, PG 230-1096

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

From June 2017 – May 2018, we will post one oral history clip and transcript each month, focusing on Arlington’s history, culture and identity.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

Oral History: Interview with Ruth “Cas” Cocklin

Photo of the boy scout's Cleanorama sign

"Up To Her Neck In Solid Waste..."

When the first Earth Day was organized in 1970, the U.S. environmental movement had already begun to gain traction across the country. This was true for Arlington, where civic activists and county leaders began to incorporate environmental assessment into the work of the County Board.

Ruth “Cas” Cocklin, a former president of the Arlington League of Women Voters and an active member of the effort to reform the juvenile justice system, served on the Board’s first Environmental Improvement Commission.

In this clip, Ms. Cocklin explains the early goals of the Commission and her own interest in recycling.

NARRATOR: Ruth C. Cocklin
INTERVIEWER: Edmund Campbell
DATE: November 9, 1989

Transcript:

RCC: About 1972 or '73, Joe Fisher, who was somewhat of an environmentalist, wanted to set up an environmental commission of some sort within the county.

EC: Joe Fisher at that time was a member of the Arlington County Board.

RCC: The Arlington County Board. And there were nine of us on the Commission. The first thing we decided to do was to do an environmental survey of the County which had never been done. It took us almost all year and we divided up into different sectors. Someone doing water, someone doing air, someone doing this that and the other thing, and I chose solid waste because I was interested in newspaper separation and I wanted to see how this worked out. So we published a thick paperback report which is still good reading. We really went very thoroughly into everything, into the quality of the streams in Arlington, into run off into the streams, into all sorts of things.
And as far as solid waste was concerned, into how the trash was picked up at the curb, what happened at the transfer station in South Arlington and then what occurred when it went on to Lorton, the costs, and what possibilities there were for separation.

EC: Am I correct, that some of your friends say you were up to your neck in solid waste?

RCC: Well, Ann Cadman, who is still writing for local papers, did a story for the Northern Virginia Sun on me and my activities, this was when I was involved in newspaper separation, and headlined it, "Up To Her Neck In Solid Waste", which my husband didn't think was particularly good.
There was a great awareness that we needed to reduce the amount of solid waste. We have had a very, very extravagant lifestyle, of packaging things elaborately, throwing all this stuff away; people don't reuse things and in terms of newspapers and in terms of beverage containers, we were particularly anxious to do something.
Finally, I think this was going to come up in the County Board sometime in the late summer and so we got a bunch of volunteers and developed a questionnaire saying "Are you familiar with the need for separation of newspapers?" I don't know whether that was the question, on newspaper separation, "Would you be willing to separate your newspapers? Do you think this should be compulsory or should it be voluntary? Should the County Board do something on this?" We called six hundred Arlington residents. We debated whether to use the voters list or the tax payers list and finally we just used the telephone book. We figured that that would get a wider variety of people.

EC: You mean you telephoned six hundred people?

RCC: Yes. I mean we had a number of people but they were all using the same questions. We telephoned 600. We did it at random on certain pages. We just pulled out certain pages.
So we had people in apartments as well as people in homes. We called 600 people and were absolutely astounded with the results. There were about 10 people, who said, "That's silly", and down went the phone. There were about 20 people who didn't care one way or the other, really didn't have an opinion. The rest of the people said, "Why hasn't Arlington done this before, Alexandria's doing it," and they'd mention someplace in Massachusetts they knew of that was doing it or someplace in Michigan or whatever. "This is silly that we're not doing it." I think, Joe Wholey kept asking us, "Now where did you get this list? What were the questions asked?" and we kept giving him the information and I think he finally was convinced that perhaps people, the citizens, had moved ahead of the elected officials.

You can find Ruth Cas Cocklin’s interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History - VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.3 no.33. Photo: Boy Scout Troup 622, trash bags, Cleanarama sign
Source: PG 200 Subject Photograph Collection, Series 22 Clenarama 1972, 200-0904

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

From June 2017 – May 2018, we will post one oral history clip and transcript each month, focusing on Arlington’s history, culture and identity.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

 

Oral History: Interview with Elizabeth Campbell

paper cut image of sound wave next to photo of Elizabeth Campbell

Creating “Time for Science,” Hosting Eleanor Roosevelt

Reading through the oral history interview with Elizabeth Campbell, it’s hard to find a corner of Arlington life that she wasn’t involved in.

Education was a reoccurring theme in her myriad of interests; Mrs. Campbell was the only woman elected when the county adopted an elected school board, she started one of the earliest cooperative pre-schools in the area, and she became president of the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (GWETA) during its founding.

In this clip Mrs. Campbell is interviewed by her husband Edmund Campbell, and the two discuss her early work with GWETA.

NARRATOR: Edmund D. Campbell
INTERVIEWER: Elizabeth P. Campbell
DATE: September 3, 1984

Transcript:

EDC: The final major subject I want to talk about and get you to talk about briefly concerns the formation and early days particularly of the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association which, in its early days, was almost exclusively an Arlington production. Tell us about that.

EPC: The needs of the schools at that time were particularly great in the area of science in the elementary schools, and I knew that there were two other communities in the nation that were using television to serve their schools, and so when I said I would be President of the Greater Washington Educational Television Association, I said, “We want to begin by serving the schools.” We were able to get the interest of twelve of the Superintendents of schools in the Washington metropolitan area to support a science program provided we could raise the money from foundations to get the programs on the air on a trial basis. We were able to do this, and for three years, we had “Time for Science”, a half hour program received in the fifth and sixth grades in all the Washington Area schools including the District of Columbia.

EDC: Did you have any especially interesting incidents that occurred while you were broadcasting from Yorktown High School?

EPC: Well, you see, all of our programs were live into the schools. We made the programs right there. We did a lot of production with two cameras and one tape machine that had been loaned to us by the Ford Foundation (they finally gave it to us) and so we wanted to have some special programs, particularly for the interest of the high school students because most of our programs were only for the elementary schools. We called and invited Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt to come out and do a program for us on careers, to inspire young women particularly to go out and have their own careers and also to serve their communities. The secretary said, “Well, Mrs. Roosevelt must have a place in which to rest when she comes out to the studio,” and I said, “All right.” I looked around. We were in very crowded quarters, and outside of the rooms that we used for studios, there was a broom closet, quite a large closet where they kept brooms and cleaning utensils. So we cleaned that out and put a chair in there and a table with a glass of water, and that’s where Mrs. Roosevelt rested. Then after the program was over, she let some of the high school seniors come and talk to her. That was a great thrill for them and for all of us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the money or didn’t know enough to save that tape, and so we have no record of Mrs. Roosevelt’s being there. But I remember it very well, and it was one of the highlights of my experiences at Yorktown.

You can find Elizabeth Campbell’s interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History – VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.3 no.27. Photo: Photograph of Elizabeth Campbell; Source: RG 19 Personal Papers of Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell, Subgroup 6 Series 3, 19-5837

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

From June 2017 – May 2018, we will post one oral history clip and transcript each month, focusing on Arlington’s history, culture and identity.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

 

 

Oral History: Interview with Firefighter Julian Syphax

paper cut image of sound wave next to photo of 1931 Halls Hill volunteer fire department

Hall’s Hill Volunteer Fire Department 1931, collection of the Arlington Historical Society

23 Years at Station 8, Hall’s Hill

Julian Syphax was one of the first paid black firefighters in Arlington as well as one of the first paid firefighters at the Hall’s Hill station.

The Arlington County Government began formerly providing fire protection in 1940, creating a career system for what was previously a network of volunteer fire fighting departments in the county. A volunteer-run station was established in Hall’s Hill in 1925, but the employment program was limited to white firefighters only for its first decade.

Julian Syphax, then a young man from Ithaca, New York, moved to Arlington in 1949 and applied for a job as a firefighter at a time when the County was beginning to make positions available to black applicants. Mr. Syphax’s interview is a tremendous source of information for people interested in the experience of desegregation, as well as the history of fire protection in Arlington County.

In this clip, Mr. Syphax reflects on the initial difficulties he and his colleague Alfred had working with the other majority white firefighter stations, as well as his appreciation for his time as a firefighter and the close-knit community of the Hall’s Hill neighborhood.

NARRATOR: Julian Syphax
INTERVIEWER: Judith Knudsen
DATE: May 20, 2016

Transcript:

JS: Well, I can honestly say that at the beginning of our careers, Alfred and I were really let known that they didn’t want us, from the way we were treated at a fire, you know, no—

JK: This is the other firefighters you’re talking?

JS: The other firefighters.

JK: Okay. The white firefighters.

JS: Firefighters did not want us, and, I have to admit, some of the chiefs, some of the people in charge. A lot of times there were fires in our first-due territory, so we were called on. They would call second due and third due before they would call us. I lived at that time, when I got married, across the street from the firehouse, and there was a fire in a barrel in my yard. Somebody had set on fire. And the firehouse was across the street, and they called in Cherrydale, who was second due, and we all stood there and watched them come up Lee Highway from Cherrydale to put the fire out. So it was known that they didn’t want us.
But like I said before, it all turned out to be a very nice job, and from Ithaca, New York, I found that the only reason for the racism was that they didn’t have any communications. But after I found out that they got to know each other, there wasn’t that much different in either one of us, so broke down kind of fast.

JK: So what was the community like just living there? Just aside from that, what do you remember about Hall’s Hill and—

JS: Close, very close. The neighbors, all Hall’s Hill, was very, very close. They had a kind of a—instead of going all the way to the Safeway, there was a little family store that you could get bread and milk, stuff like that, staples. And church. There was a Methodist church that is still there, I think, on Lee Highway. Calloway. Calloway Methodist Church was there, which I would say 80 percent of Hall’s Hill attended. And just a lot of social activity, that everybody knew everybody, and they were very close-knit.

JK: Yeah, what I always hear is if the children misbehave, everybody—

JS: It was a village. Really, that was very true. Took a village to raise your child.

JK: So how long were you at Hall’s Hill? How many years that you were there?

JS: I never changed.

JK: Full-time.

JS: I was at Station 8—

JK: The whole time.

JS: —my whole career for twenty-three years, yeah. That’s why I’m so very thankful and I’m so honored for this. I just don’t have the words to express it.

You can find Julian Syphax’s interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History – VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.3 no.295. Photo: Hall’s Hill Volunteer Fire Department 1931; Source: Photographs of the Arlington Historical Society, PG 230-4075

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

From June 2017 – May 2018, we will post one oral history clip and transcript each month, focusing on Arlington’s history, culture and identity.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

 

 

Oral History: Interview with Local Business Owner Robert Tramonte of the Italian Store

Paper sound waveform with shadow and photo of Italian Store in 1980s

A Cornerstone of the Growing Lyon Village Community

Arlington has no shortage of local businesses offering high quality food, goods, and services, and it might surprise you to learn just how long some of them have been established in the community.

The Center for Local History has a growing collection of interviews with current and former business owners, the majority of which have been recorded by our volunteer Virginia Smith.

The Italian Store, a multi-location market replete with delicacies from fresh sandwiches to a gelato bar, opened in 1980 in the then “sleepy little shopping center” of Lyon Village. In this interview, co-owner Robert Tramonte takes us back to the days of the store’s founding before winding the clock further back to the days of his great-grandfather’s immigration to the United States from Italy.

NARRATOR: Robert Tramonte
INTERVIEWER: Virginia Smith
DATE:   March 20, 2013

 

Transcript:

RT: The founding of The Italian Store. Well, we started in 1980 and right before 1980, my brother and I were working for my father. My father is an attorney in Arlington but on the side with his brother, Tony, he owned a nightclub in Georgetown called The Bayou.  We ran the nightclub for four or five years until right between ’79 and ’80 when my dad sold it to the Cellar Door Company and within six months of selling the Bayou, we opened up The Italian Store.

VS: What was Lyon Village like in 1980 when you and your brother and dad went looking for a place to establish the joint as we say—the joint?

RT: Lyon Village was kind of a sleepy little shopping center.  Back in 1980, I don’t even think very few people even knew the name of the shopping center.  And the property where The Italian Store sits, they had for many years, even when I was a little kid, they had something there called Bernie’s Amusements which they had a pony ring there and they had these little boats and they had some batting cages and things like that. My sister and I remember riding the ponies when we were really young.

VS: So, you opened up the first day, who comes in? Who are your early buyers, early clients?

RT: In the early days, we really didn’t know what our clientele would be or we didn’t know what we were going to sell either. So, anybody that asked us for anything, we said yes which got us into a little trouble now and then. But, the very first day we were busy.  People were anxious to have this new store open and we had a core of people I felt the first couple years that were Italian and they really supported us and they went out of their way to spend money to make sure that we survived.  We knew their names. They knew us. We knew exactly what their order was going to be. We would put things aside, special ordered for them and they really helped us in the beginning. Also in the beginning, since we didn’t know exactly where this business was going to take us, we had a lot of restaurants that ordered from us.

VS: What would they order?

RT: Back in those days, this is 1980 now—but my brother made my fresh mozzarella and you can get mozzarella pretty easily nowadays but back in those days, it was very hard to find so my brother almost every day of the week, he was making fresh mozzarella and we would sell it to the restaurants.  We do very little of that today because the supplies are there, much more readily available. We have to work a little bit harder now to get products that people can’t find and we do. I still think that we have the best network to New York of anybody in this area. We have suppliers that I don’t think anybody else deals with.

VS: Tell me a little bit about who came here in 1889.

RT: 1889 was my great grandfather, Vincenzo Tramonte.  I haven’t been able to track down the exact location but, apparently [00:36:00] there was a group, they had an Italian food store there and my father said that it was a food store. It was also a general store. It was also a place where if you were a new immigrant, you could probably get a loan to kind of help you out. So we have a little bit of history in Manhattan, in the Italian food business.

VS: It is not out of the question that you should have opened The Italian Store, the food store.

RT: Exactly.

You can find Robert Tramonte’s interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History – VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.3 no.283. Photo: Lyon Village 1986; Source: Arlington Photographs: Before and After – The Guy W. Starling Collection PG210-0085

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

From June 2017 – May 2018, we will post one oral history clip and transcript each month, focusing on Arlington’s history, culture and identity.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

 

 

Oral History: Interview with Native American Navy Pilot Thomas Oxendine

Arlington Voices: The Oral History Collection

Native American Experience in the U.S. Military

Thomas Oxendine, from Pembroke, North Carolina, became the first Native American Navy Pilot when he served in World War II.

Oxendine had an illustrious career as a Navy pilot, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for landing at sea and under gunfire to make a rescue. After 29 years in the Navy, Oxendine transitioned to civilian life as the head of public information with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and settled down in Arlington, Virginia, where he lived until his death in 2010. His oral history interview sheds light into the complex history of Native American and United States Federal Government relations in the 20th century, and is a wonderful source in this time of reflection on Veteran, Native American, and United States founding history.

In this clip, Thomas Oxendine describes the segregation of Native Americans in the US Military, and gives an account of his famous rescue on Yap Island.

NARRATOR: Thomas Oxendine
INTERVIEWER: Joe B. Johnson
DATE: May 22, 2007

Transcript:

TO: Well, as I was just pointing out my background is a little unusual in that I am a Lumbee Indian, born on a farm near Pembroke, North Carolina.
In 1941 – very unusual. There was an enterprising person who had a flying school in Lumberton, North Carolina, Horace Barnes. And he petitioned the government to do a study by training ten Indians to fly, and do a study similar to what they were doing with blacks down at Tuskegee, Alabama. So I was fortunate enough at age eighteen to get a license to fly. So at the time of Pearl Harbor I already could fly and went down to join up in January, and joined the Navy and became the first American Indian to go through Navy flight training.
You may have an interest in how that came about, because the policies of government during the days of segregation were a little unusual, in that the way the Armed Forces dealt with segregation, the Army only segregated black people. They had all black people doing what they did in the Army, they did it in a segregated unit. There were no restrictions on Indians in the Army. They could attain any level they had the skills and qualifications. So it only applied to blacks.
At the same time over in the Navy, the Navy restricted their officer corps to Caucasians. Indians could be any of the enlisted grades but not an officer, and blacks could only be steward’s mates. Again, that’s not good or bad, that’s flat out the way it was. In fact, the application for me signing up for the Navy had three categories: they were Caucasian, Negro, others. I don’t know who all the others were but Indians were in the “others.” So the qualifications for a naval officer was Caucasian and certain age. I think it was 19-26.
I found out the Navy has a problem with me in that at the time I applied, the Navy had enlisted pilots called NAPs or Naval Aviation Pilots. The Army had Flying Sergeants and what they did is: they did routine maintenance flights, ferried airplanes and what have you. But the war had just broken out and the Navy did away with the enlisted program. So I’m not restricted from entering flight training.
However, if they put me in, by the time I get to the other end, completion, there is no enlisted program. So it took a couple of months and finally permitted me to enter and then I got all kind of publicity as the first American Indian to go through Navy flight training. But that was kind of a fluke, and I don’t know of any others who came in until President Truman integrated the Armed Forces in 1947.
JJ: All right. That’s an unusual way to get through, and you then went through the training and went on to be an active aviator and had a career.
TO: Right.
JJ: You made at least one rescue?
TO: Yes, on July 24, 1944. It happened at Yap Island. We got a message that there were three downed pilots, in too close to the beach for their submarines to pick up. We were one hundred or so miles away, and flew in to make that rescue. The first pilot was going without anyone in his backseat and we spotted the raft, and he landed and made that recovery. They said there was a third pilot crew member in the water also, but without a life raft, and that is very difficult from being airborne to locate a person who is just in there with a life jacket under enemy gun fire.
But while that rescue is taking place by the other aircraft, I finally spotted him, and I went in to make the rescue, and the gun fire got really heavy and the air group commander said: “Do not land, do not land,” but I had already made up my mind I would not take my eyes off this person.
So I landed and went in and picked him up and leveled out and avoided the gunfire. I didn’t get hit but had splashes all around while I’m making that. So I kind of wiped my brow and said” Thank goodness I was able to do that.”

You can find Thomas Oxendine’s interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History – VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.3 no.207

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

From June 2017 – May 2018, we will post one oral history clip and transcript each month, focusing on Arlington’s history, culture and identity.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

 

 

Oral History: An Interview with Ruth Jones

Ruth Jones, born in March of 1913, began to visit Arlington Beach around 1927. The amusement park and beach were popular among area residents in the 1920s.

Arlington Beach occupied space around what was then known as the Long Bridge, and later became the Fourteenth St Bridge complex, from 1923 to 1929. The Washington Airport Corporation eventually bought the land for additional landing space, which then gave away to Pentagon construction.

In this audio clip, Mrs. Jones recalls her teenage years spent at the beach with her friends and future husband.

Narrator: Ruth Jones
Interviewer: Ingrid Kauffman
Interview Date: March 23, 1999

Transcript:

IK: And so can you tell us about Arlington Beach?
RJ: Well, I was just a young girl, 14 or 15 years old and I met my husband, well, he eventually was my husband.
IK: What was his name?
RJ: Raymond Jones. And he lived in Washington. And we started going to Glen Echo and to Arlington Beach and just having a good time for kids, you know. And so they had a roller coaster, a carousel –
IK: How much did that roller coaster cost?
RJ: Ten cents. A ride at your own risk. That’s the truth, too. It was rickety. After I came to Washington, it was only there for 2 years, 2 or 3 years, then they tore it down.
IK: They tore down the roller coaster?
RJ: Everything. And shut the beach down and all, to put the airport there.
IK: Oh, I see, yes. But tell us about everything you can remember there. You say there was a carousel?
RJ: Yes. And like I said, the roller coaster. And all the places you could go play games –
IK: Like what?
RJ: — along the beach. Like throwing darts to win a bunny or whatever they had, you know. Those kinds of things. And eating places, hot dog stands and things like that. And the dance pavilion was wonderful. It was a big, round pavilion, good music, you know, big band music in those days, big band.
IK: Do you remember any of the bands?
RJ: No, I can’t remember the bands.
IK: But it was live bands, huh?
RJ: Yes. We had a good time dancing. And the beach was great in those days.
IK: So, and then, tell us, you say they tore it down. What do you remember about that?
RJ: All I remember is they tore it down. They said they were closing it to put the airport in. And then they put the airport there. And then it wasn’t very long, even, before they tore that down. And my husband and them used to go to – my husband and daughter’s father-in-law – used to go to where the Pentagon is now. It was all woods, weeds and all. And they used to go there and pick elderberries and wild grapes and made the best wine you ever tasted. It was during Prohibition! But it was good wine.
IK: And you don’t remember any shacks or anything that –
RJ: No, but they built shacks down there. Yes they did. And we had neighbors that lived in Annandale after I moved to Annandale, they lived across the street from me, and they had lived down on the water like that. They were shacks.
IK: Oh, they lived on the water. RJ: They did. And they lived there free. It was federal government, see, they didn’t – but they finally told them to get out, they were putting the Pentagon in. So I’m telling the story lovely, aren’t I?

You can find Ruth Jones’ interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History – VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.3 no.71. For information about Arlington Beach, read the Center for Local History’s post, “A Day at the Beach.”

Photo: Arlington Beach Advertisement 1920; Source: Photographs of the Arlington Historical Society, PG 230-3447

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

From June 2017 – May 2018, we will post one oral history clip and transcript each month, focusing on Arlington’s history, culture and identity.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

Oral History: An Interview with Lilli Vincenz

Arlington Voices: Lilli Vincenz

Dr. Lilli Vincenz came to the Washington, DC area in 1963 as a WAC (otherwise known as the Women’s Army Corps). After being outed as a lesbian and receiving a general discharge, Dr. Vincenz found a community and a calling in LGB activism.

She quickly became involved in the Mattachine Society of Washington, an important organization in the fight for local and national rights for gay and lesbian Americans. A dedicated community activist, Dr. Vincenz hosted a weekly open house for lesbian women from 1971 to 1979 and founded the Community for Creative Self Development, an empowerment program for the LGB community from 1992 to 2004.

In this audio clip, Dr. Vincenz shares her memories of protesting discrimination against gay and lesbian sexuality with the Mattachine Society.

Narrator: Lilli Vincenz
Interviewer: Diane Kresh
Interview Date: November 14, 2013

Transcript:

DK: Can you talk a little bit about the Mattachine Society?

LV: Oh, I loved it. Yeah. I went there immediate—and I felt so good. It was wonderful. I just loved it.

DK: Well, what did you love about it?

LV: I was free. And then the picketing started and I have that noted also in there. And it was so exciting that that was the most important thing for me. I’ve got to do this, because there’s all the lies that have been made for people who think that gay people are bad people socially. And well, nobody had really told people that it’s all right to be gay. But now, of course, we’re getting this quickly now that this—everywhere now we’re—

DK: Huge change.

LV: Another marriage, another marriage, they’re doing all that!

DK: Did you think that that would happen in your lifetime, those kinds of changes?

LV: Well, early on I didn’t think right away, but I only knew I had to be there. I had to do it, because so few people could do it. And I felt that I could do it.

For more information about Lilli Vincenz, see the Lilli Vincenz collection at the Library of Congress.

 

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

From June 2017 – May 2018, we will post one oral history clip and transcript each month, focusing on Arlington’s history, culture and identity.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

 

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