Lorraine Paige was born in 1936, the youngest of three children. She discusses life on her parents' farm and enjoying all its animals, and how her father would take her on his "A-shaped sled" to clear snow from neighbors' paths. She describes the interactions with their neighbors in the community and tells of how many of them, including herself, worked for the wealthy, white Van Clief family in Esmont. Paige describes the playhouses she and her friends built, and how when they got older they ventured to Thomas's store in Esmont to listen to the piccolo. Paige discusses how her grandfather insisted that his boys as well as his girls get a good education, an unusual position for that time, and how her father therefore was an active influence in her own education. She traces black education in Esmont back before the Esmont school, and recounts the difficulties and losses experienced in transferring from the Esmont school to the Burleigh school in Charlottesville. She also discusses the sports activities and parents' participation in the Parents and Teachers Organization (P.T.O.). Paige lists some of the social organizations that existed in Esmont and talks about what happened in the community on Christmas and during Revivals.

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Esmont Oral History Project: Building Digital Communities, Race and Place: African American Community History, Albemarle County, Virginia. Prepared by the Virginia Center for Digital History, Charlottesville, VA, 2001-2002

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