Race & Place: Oral Histories

Interview of Agnes Louise Rush on May 2, 2002, by Mieka Brand of the Race and Place Project. (Oral History)
Biographical Information A. Louise Rush, who was born in Howardsville, has lived in Esmont for the majority of her life. In the interview Ms. Rush portrays scenes from her everyday life as a young woman growing up in 'the country.' She shares the experience of being educated in an all-black two-room school house; describes a few of the games she and her friends used to play, outlines some of the many tasks tucked into the inconspicuous term 'housework.' (including recipes for ashcake and crackling), and discusses various aspects of healthcare and medical treatment available to her and her community at the time. When faced with conditions that demanded medical attention (disease or childbirth, for example), Ms. Rush remembers her family navigating between traditional healing practices and a segregated biomedical healthcare system. Among the rich recollections included in this interview, Ms. Rush shares her memories of Christmas before the era of store-bought ornaments, and of social life in Charlottesville. Towards the end of the interview she and her husband, William Rush, discuss some of the social and legal transformations African Americans have experienced over the years, and reflect on the meanings of these changes for themselves and for Americans as a whole. Project Description Race and Place is a project of the Virginia Center for Digital History and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies. The goal of the project is to chronicle the life of African-Americans in the Charlottesville, Virginia area during the period of segregation. As part of this project we have conducted a series of interviews with current residents of the Charlottesville area who were alive during that period. The project has also incorporated oral interviews conducted by other Charlottesville institutions which cover the appropriate subject area. Notes About Our Transcription The transcripts represent what was said in the interview to the best of our ability. It is possible that some words, particularly names, have been misspelled. Where we did not feel sure of spellings we have indicated this by the use of the term 'phonetically' in parentheses following the word in question. Places where words were unclear are noted by 'inaudible'. Brackets have been used to indicate additions made to the text upon review by the interviewee. We have made no attempt to correct mistakes in grammar.

Ms. Brand:	May 2nd, 2002. Interview with Mr. and Mrs. William Rush. 8105 Chestnut Grove Road. Esmont, Virginia. Interviewer Mieka Brand, Virginia Center for Digital History, University of Virginia. Alright, so I'm starting to record.
	tv is on and can be heard occasionally in the background. These voices were not transcribed.)
Ms. Brand:	Alright... so actually, last time I never even asked what your full name was.
Mrs. Rush:	Agnes Louise Simpson-my maiden name is Simpson.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	Rush.
Ms. Brand:	Agnes Louise Simpson Rush. And when were you born?
Mrs. Rush:	October the 13th, 1925.
Ms. Brand:	Wow... and you were born in Howardsville?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	And where were you living in Howardsville?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we wasn't in the heart of Howardsville. We were just on the outskirts of Howardsville.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	But that's where we originally got our mail and stuff.
Ms. Brand:	I see.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Were you living on a farm?
Mrs. Rush:	No, we just had a home over there on the road, about-I reckon about 2 1/2 miles from here-going up this road and then you cut in by the white church sitting up in the fork of the road?
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And you don't keep straight. You turn.
Ms. Brand:	Ok.
Mrs. Rush:	And you keep coming and going and going-we lived on... we used to live on that road. Of course, our house has been torn down and somebody else bought the place.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	And his name is James Morris. He bought it.
Ms. Brand:	That's the guy who lives there now-who owns it now?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So who-when you... were you born at home?
Mrs. Rush:	At home.
Ms. Brand:	At home.
Mrs. Rush:	By a midwife.
Ms. Brand:	Oh wow.
Mrs. Rush:	Roberta Barrett.
Ms. Brand:	Barrett?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	And was she also-
Mrs. Rush:	Umm...
Ms. Brand:	Go ahead.
Mrs. Rush:	Uh...
Ms. Brand:	Oh, I thought you were about to say something.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	Oh, was she also from the area?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, yeah. She was right across the bushes from us.
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Across the what?
Mrs. Rush:	Bushes (smiles). She lived in a little house, but you couldn't see it, because of the trees. But we wasn't too far apart.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok. Was she any kin to your family?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no) No, she was just our neighbor.
Ms. Brand:	Your lady?
Mrs. Rush:	Neighbor.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, your neighbor.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. (indicates yes) And our friend.
Ms. Brand:	Do you know-oh, go ahead.
Mrs. Rush:	I said, 'and our friend.'
Ms. Brand:	And our friend... yeah. Was that her full-time job, to be a midwife?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup. That's what she did.
Ms. Brand:	Wow, so she basically birthed all the kids in the area?
Mrs. Rush:	Almost!
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	They was... along with William and I, she birthed them.
Ms. Brand:	She birthed Mr. Rush too? Oh, I...
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, I think she did. (calls to husband) Did she William?
Mr. Rush:	(from the next room) Huh?
Mrs. Rush:	Ms. Barrett brought you here, did she?
Mr. Rush:	Uh...
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	Brought me here into where?
	(Mrs. Rush & Ms. Brand laugh)
Ms. Brand:	Into the world.
Mr. Rush:	Oh! She was my midwife, yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Uh-huh.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, she was.
Ms. Brand:	Ms. Barrett.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. (comes into the room)
Mrs. Rush:	Yup, she was his midwife.
Ms. Brand:	Sorry, we started without you.
Mr. Rush:	That's ok. I just went out there to check up on some flowers anyway.
Ms. Brand:	Oh.
Mr. Rush:	Have to water them, sometimes if the rain won't do it.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Because I was telling her everybody who was born with you and I, she was the-she brought us here.
Mr. Rush:	Oh yeah. Wasn't such a thing as a doctor. A doctor was too, but they didn't do nothing. The midwives, they took care of it.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. If they found out it was a little bit too much for them, they might send for the doctor. Because I think that's what they did for me. That's what I heard mama say.
Ms. Brand:	Mm! What happened? You didn't want to come out?
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs) I reckon something like that. I was so slow, I guess.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	But Ms. Barrett was there.
Mr. Rush:	And a doctor on hand, just in case.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	Dr. Harris, he was the doctor.
Ms. Brand:	He lived around here?
Mrs. Rush:	Lived in Scottsville.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Dr. Percy Harris.
Ms. Brand:	Is that who you went to also for-when you got sick? Was he a general doctor?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh yeah! Mm-hm. Yup, he was.
Ms. Brand:	So when-oh, go ahead-
Mr. Rush:	It was him or Dr. Early.
Ms. Brand:	Or Dr. Early?
Mr. Rush & Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	So when did people start going to the hospital? Did you give birth at home, or...?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, I had all of them here-all of them except two.
Ms. Brand:	Ok.
Mrs. Rush:	Those were my last ones: Patrick and Pearl.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. The twins.
Mrs. Rush:	The twins, yeah. And I probably would have had them here, but my midwife, she had done pass on. She was deceased when they were born.
Ms. Brand:	Oh.
Mrs. Rush:	So that's why I had to go to the hospital.
Ms. Brand:	So you had them in the hospital.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. They were the only two. The rest I had at home.
Ms. Brand:	And who was your midwife?
Mrs. Rush:	And my midwife was Jessie Coleman.
Ms. Brand:	Was she from around here too?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup, she used to live right down the road there, where-
Mr. Rush:	We're remodeling that store there, that's where she used to live at.
Ms. Brand:	They lived in the store building?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok. The 'Ackson' store?
Mr. Rush:	(smiles) 'Ackson' store, yeah. But at that time he had the store over in the woods, but that one burned down years ago.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. So her husband ran the store or something?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. Her husband was Charlie Coleman. He ran the store.
Ms. Brand:	So would you-do you pay a midwife?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	You pay her.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, probably a dollar and a half, or a bushel of potatoes or something.
Ms. Brand:	Per baby. (laughs)
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	Wow. Where does she-where do they learn how to be midwives?
Mr. Rush & Mrs. Rush:	I don't know!
Mr. Rush:	Probably know how to be midwives because they-they've been doing it before we got here, so...
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	Where they get it from, I don't know.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	Was-
Mr. Rush:	At that time, I don't think you had to go through collage or nothing to learn those things.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mr. Rush:	You just get yourself a kind of book, you read up on it, and pass the test, and you did it.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, you had to get certified?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mr. Rush:	You had to have a license, you know. To do it.
Ms. Brand:	To be a midwife.
Mr. Rush:	Uh-huh.
Ms. Brand:	Oh. I was wondering if maybe, like, her mother was a midwife, or you know somehow it got passed down.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, I don't know about that.
Ms. Brand:	So-who was living in the house that you were born in? You were living with your mother?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. My mother, my father, my sisters and brother.
Ms. Brand:	And how many of those were there?
Mrs. Rush:	They all were there.
Ms. Brand:	Everyone lived in the same house together?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Three-room house.
Ms. Brand:	Three-room house? And how many sisters and brothers did you have?
Mrs. Rush:	I had four sisters and one brother.
Ms. Brand:	Oh!
Mrs. Rush:	Let me see, Gert, Sarah, and Helen-I had three sisters and one brother. There was five of us.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok. Oh, that's a pretty small family, compared to some I've heard!
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Mr. Rush:	Yeah. Compared to mine it was.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah. Do you think that your size was pretty average, or that your size? In terms of size of family.
Mr. Rush:	Oh no-my size, we had eleven of us.
Ms. Brand:	But was that pretty average? I've heard a lot of families talk about...
Mr. Rush:	No, it was-the average... that was about the biggest family out here. From my daddy. Because he had more children than anybody in Chestnut Grove.
Ms. Brand:	Who did?
Mr. Rush:	My daddy.
Ms. Brand:	Oh he did?
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	He had the most.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah. He had eleven. An average family had about, say, eight nine. Some of them 10, you know.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mr. Rush:	Not eleven, though.
Ms. Brand:	So would five kids be considered, like, pretty average? Or small or big? Like...
Mr. Rush:	Pretty average. Uh, five kids would be about an average size.
Ms. Brand:	About average.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	You go beyond that, you're going overboard, you know? (laughs)
Ms. Brand:	Yeah? (laughs) Well, today people tell you if you're going over two you're going overboard! It's different-
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, uh-huh.
Mr. Rush & Ms. Brand:	Different world.
Mr. Rush:	Now.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm! (indicates yes)
Ms. Brand:	So who were your sisters?
Mrs. Rush:	My older sister was named Helen.
Ms. Brand:	Helen.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. And she married a Jordan.
Ms. Brand:	A what?
Mrs. Rush:	Jordan. J-O-R-D-A-N.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	She married. She was Simpson.
Ms. Brand:	Right, so her last name-her married name was Jordan.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. And my next one was Gertrude. She married a Scott.
Ms. Brand:	Ok.
Mrs. Rush:	Next one was Sarah. She married a Fagan.
Ms. Brand:	Ok.
Mrs. Rush:	And my last one was George. He didn't marry anybody.
Ms. Brand:	He didn't.
Mrs. Rush:	Nope.
Ms. Brand:	So I guess he stayed a Simpson. (smiles) And where were you in here? What number were you?
Mrs. Rush:	Last.
Ms. Brand:	You're the youngest?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	The baby.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Did they baby you?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, in a way they did.
Ms. Brand:	Did you go by Agnes or Louise?
Mrs. Rush:	Puddin.
Ms. Brand:	Puddin!
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs) That was my nickname.
Ms. Brand:	Oh! (laughs) I can tell you were the youngest child.
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs) But most everybody now calls me Louise. And the only way I've come to be Agnes is when I got sick and went to the hospital and they asked me my first name. And my first name was Agnes. So it's a lot of folks in Chestnut Grove didn't even know I was named Agnes.
Ms. Brand:	Oh!
Mrs. Rush:	'Til just recently-and a whole lot of them may not still know it.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah. But that's what they call you at the hospital.
Mrs. Rush:	Agnes.
Ms. Brand:	Huh.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	You could tell them, I'm sure.
	(Mr. Rush & Mrs. Rush laugh)
Ms. Brand:	'Just call me Louise.'
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, that's what I tell them. Of course sometimes the children visit me when I go to the dialysis. And they say, 'hey there, Weezie!' and they say, 'who is Weezie?' They say, 'that's my mom right there. Her name is Louise!' (laughs)
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Oh... So how did you get to be called 'Puddin'?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, they nicknamed me that when I was small.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Do you know why? Do you remember why?
Mrs. Rush:	No, I never found out why. But when I used to go to school, all I ever heard was 'Puddin.' So I used to write my name 'Puddin Simpson.'
	(Mrs. Rush & Ms. Brand laugh)
Ms. Brand:	Even your teachers called you that?
Mrs. Rush:	Hm?
Ms. Brand:	Even your teachers called you that?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, they called me that some time until they asked what my real name was, and I asked my mom and them what was my real name...
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	So how old were you when you found out your real name?
Ms. Brand:	Oh, I was round about six or seven, I guess.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. (pause) I like 'Puddin.' It's very friendly.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, she's my baby Puddin...
	(Mrs. Rush & Ms. Brand laugh)
Mrs. Rush:	My father used to have some kinfolks live over in Nelson County.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And they used to tell my father and mom, 'you all must not never nickname y'all kids.
Ms. Brand:	Why?
Mrs. Rush:	I don't know! They used to always have to call them by their name.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Because they'll probably grow up with that nickname.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Because I know, my oldest daughter, her name is Patricia, but my nephew, he named her 'Baby.' So everybody used to call her Baby.
Ms. Brand:	Oh...
Mrs. Rush:	And when some of the men folks used to have Baby, you know, folks think they... (laughs)
Ms. Brand:	Oh... (laughs)
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, we always tell them, 'that's her nickname is Baby.'
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. So, and I think he still calls her baby.
Ms. Brand:	Your nephew.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Anybody else?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, most all of them.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	A whole lot of them around used to call her that name.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So, do you remember what your parents used to do for a living?
Mrs. Rush:	Well my father used to work on the WPA.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, he did!
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	What did he do there?
Mrs. Rush:	Well he did what most black persons do: cut bushes and dig ditches.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. (pause) He did it on the WPA road?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Before it got to be hard surface it was a dirt road then, owned by the state.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And he used to help, you know, different white folks around in our place to cut corn, and shuck corn, and wheat and different things.
	(pause)
Ms. Brand:	And your mom?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, my mom, she used to take in washing for different people around. They used to work on this farm shucking corn, and shelling peas, and chopping, and doing pretty much what the men do.
Ms. Brand:	Really?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Cut pine wood...
Ms. Brand:	Wow... which-you said they worked on which farm?
Mrs. Rush:	Langhorn Farm.
Ms. Brand:	That was a big farm around here?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	(to Mr. Rush) And did you say you worked on that farm too? Or your dad did?...
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. My dad did and I did too.
Ms. Brand:	So that was the same one.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Hm. It employed a lot of people around here?
Mr. Rush:	Yeah. Most everybody in this area worked there.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. (to Mrs. Rush) And your mom, she used to hand wash clothes?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Did she have a machine or anything?
Mrs. Rush:	Nope. Washboard.
Ms. Brand:	Washboard.
Mrs. Rush:	That's what I used to use.
Ms. Brand:	You too?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup. When I was pregnant I still used to use a washboard.
Ms. Brand:	When you were pregnant?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Why when you were pregnant?
	(pause)
Mr. Rush:	Had to wash clothes.
Mrs. Rush:	Had to wash clothes.
Mr. Rush:	If you have nothing else to wash with you had to wash with a washboard.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, but what about when you weren't pregnant?
Mr. Rush:	Still wash.
Mrs. Rush:	Well, I still use the washboard.
Ms. Brand:	Oh. Ok... I thought maybe it was something special about being pregnant.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm (indicates no).
Mr. Rush:	(laughs) No, but right now, see, generally pregnant women don't do nothing at all. But to push the washboard will get your stomach washing clothes.
Ms. Brand:	Oh yeah...
Mr. Rush:	So she did it when she was pregnant
Ms. Brand:	Right. Had to get clean.
Mr. Rush:	Yup.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Hm. Um... and that-so, your mom was at home most of the time?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Do you remember that kinds of things that you'd see her doing as you were growing up?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, I'd see her canning.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, canning.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. And I've seen her sewing.
Ms. Brand:	Hm. Did she make your clothes?
Mrs. Rush:	Well... no. most of my clothes was given to use by some of our neighbors who had relatives living in New York and places. We used to get most of our clothes from them. The little bit for-you know-what they couldn't buy.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	Because they, when you worked then, you very seldom got money.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Most generally you'd get trade, or meat, flour, something like that.
Ms. Brand:	Right. Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	When we used to-of course we didn't get sick much. We used to have colds and stomach aches. Things like that. And they used to give us a little turpentine and sugar and give us for the bellyache...
Ms. Brand:	Turpentine!
	(Mr. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	And you'd swallow it?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, we swallowed it!
Ms. Brand:	I can't imagine that tasted too good.
Mrs. Rush:	We'd hate to take it.
Mr. Rush:	Well it tasted good at that time because you had the chance to eat sugar.
Ms. Brand:	Ohh!
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. You put on about a couple of drops on sugar and give it to you.
Mr. Rush:	That would take care of the worms. It would take worms out of your system.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, I bet it would. All kinds of stuff.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, and it removed the worms too.
Ms. Brand:	Mm!
Mrs. Rush:	Our stomachs would stop hurting and we'd go on back to playing.
Mr. Rush:	I've got a bottle of that turpentine in there right now.
Ms. Brand:	You still use it?
Mr. Rush:	No!! Uh-uh. That stuff has been sitting in my cabinet over there. It's an old one. (walks over to the cabinet to take it out) You go back in them days (inaudible) turpentine.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, you got a old bottle.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	That you kept.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm... No, I found it in an old house that I was working in. It's sitting back in my old gun cabinet down there somewhere.
Ms. Brand:	Is it that bottle over there? No.
Mr. Rush:	No, it's not the one over there. I think it's at the bottom. Let me see... I think I got it sitting in there... this one is probably 80 years old.
Ms. Brand:	Oh really!
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. I'm gonna get a key to look inside there.
Ms. Brand:	Oh... that's alright.
Mr. Rush:	I think I can see it sitting over there. Behind that gun.
Ms. Brand:	Right. This is your artifact cabinet?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. Yeah. I used to do a lot of hunting when I was a young man. After I got kind of old to walk through the woods I decided to (inaudible). I'd rather not run after something that I couldn't outrun it.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
	(Mr. Rush gets the key, opens the cabinet and pulls the turpentine bottle out)
Ms. Brand:	Oh wow!
Mr. Rush:	It's about probably 80 years old.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. Still got stuff in it.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	You found this in a house?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. Old house up in there years ago.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. And you remember using it?
Mr. Rush:	I was using this kind, yes, when I was coming up. I was using this kind. I picked it out of a house and brought back it down here and put in the gun cabinet.
Ms. Brand:	So you wouldn't have sugar too often otherwise?
Mrs. Rush:	Hm?
Ms. Brand:	So sugar wasn't that common.
Mr. Rush:	It was rare. It was rare. Prior to that we would not let no children be eating no sugar, because they say sugar gives them worms.
Ms. Brand:	That's-I think that's true.
Mr. Rush:	Uh-huh. So they figured if you had some worms and they see your eyes getting kind of glassy, they'd say, 'well you've got worms.'
Ms. Brand:	Ohh.
Mr. Rush:	And get a spoon of sugar and put maybe 4-5 drops of turpentine on it.
Ms. Brand:	Huh.
Mr. Rush:	Swallow it and-it'd take care of the worms!
Ms. Brand:	Huh. (pause) Did you also have a garden in your house?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. A garden
Ms. Brand:	What kinds of things did you used to grow?
Mrs. Rush:	We'd grow beans, and English peas, and...
Ms. Brand:	English peas?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Mr. Rush:	Sweat potatoes.
Mrs. Rush:	Green peas.
Mr. Rush:	White potatoes, you name it...
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. And used to have chickens. They used to lay their eggs...
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Hog-we'd kill the hogs for our meat.
Ms. Brand:	Hm! You know, when I was driving over I think I saw some wild turkeys.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah!
Ms. Brand:	You got those around here?
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, plenty of them.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Plenty of them.
Ms. Brand:	They were just walking-on the street!
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	They didn't even get scared when I drove by.
Mr. Rush:	There's a lot of them.
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs)
Mr. Rush:	There's a big nest of them between here and Route 6 in the (inaudible). Just up on the hill up there.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mr. Rush:	You see them coming down walking.
Ms. Brand:	So do-did you all used to hunt for them?
Mr. Rush:	Well, sometimes we did, but we never bothered them too much.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. They're not that good to eat?
Mr. Rush:	They're good to eat, but a lot of people don't like to eat wild turkey. That was a rare thing back yonder years ago. But now nobody is bothering now.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Only thing they used to bother then, when we were children, was rabbits.
Mr. Rush:	Squirrels, opossum, coons.
Mrs. Rush:	Squirrels, coons, and opossums.
Ms. Brand:	That's what people used to hunt?
Mr. Rush & Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	How did that taste?
Mr. Rush:	Tastes good.
Mrs. Rush:	Well, it tasted good then, but ... (laughs)
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Yeah?...
Mr. Rush:	I couldn't eat none now.
Mrs. Rush:	I wouldn't eat none now.
Ms. Brand:	You wouldn't?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	Why?
Mr. Rush:	I don't know-I suppose I wouldn't eat it now, I reckon because at that time you'd eat anything. Everything tastes good, because food was scarce.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Food wasn't plentiful like it is now.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Mama and them used to make a mix of meal and throw it in the fire-
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Used to call it 'ashcake.'
Ms. Brand:	Ashcake.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Ohhh. Oh, she used to mix some meal.
Mrs. Rush:	Meal up together.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	And roll it up in a ball.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	And throw it in that old heater.
Ms. Brand:	Ohhh-in the furnace?
Mrs. Rush:	And the fire...
Ms. Brand:	A furnace? Or a fireplace?
Mrs. Rush:	Heater.
Mr. Rush:	It's a stove.
Mrs. Rush:	Just a stove.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, a stove. Ok.
Mrs. Rush:	If you don't have a fireplace.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	You throw it in that old heater.
Ms. Brand:	Ashcake.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	I guess that was a good way to make food stretch.
Mr. Rush:	(laughs)
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. (laughs)
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Um, so then-you started going to school at Chestnut Grove?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	How old were you when you did that?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, they didn't take no children to school then unless you were six or seven.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Now they take them when they are four. Three.
Ms. Brand:	To school?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Headstart.
Ms. Brand:	Oh yeah, headstart.
Mrs. Rush:	Now.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah, I guess they do get them started early. But you started-at that time you couldn't start until-
Mrs. Rush:	About six or seven.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	And that was the Chestnut Grove school?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	(to Mr. Rush) Which is where you went also.
	(Mr. Rush nods)
Ms. Brand:	And do you remember your teachers there?
Mrs. Rush:	Yes, there was a Ms. Quarles...
Ms. Brand:	Quarles?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Ms. Lightfoot, Ms. Sellars, Ms. Pretrella.
Ms. Brand:	Pretrella?
Mrs. Rush:	Pretrella. Patricia. I think her name was Patricia.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And did I say Ms. Lightfoot?
Mr. Rush & Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mr. Rush:	Pretrella was your first teacher.
Mrs. Rush:	Ms. Winterton.
Ms. Brand:	Winterton?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, I think she was my first teacher.
Mr. Rush:	Hm. Ain't no lower grade? (inaudible)
Mrs. Rush:	Of course, they didn't teach out there too long.
Ms. Brand:	They didn't.
Mrs. Rush:	No, they'd teach for about a year, I guess.
Ms. Brand:	You mean the teaches would only come for one year?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Where would they come-
Mrs. Rush:	They did. I think their home was in Charlottesville, I reckon. I didn't-we never did know where they came from.
Ms. Brand:	But they-so they would only come for one year?
Mrs. Rush:	For one year.
Ms. Brand:	So-
Mrs. Rush:	And then we'd get another one.
Ms. Brand:	Oh.
Mrs. Rush:	During the following year.
Ms. Brand:	So none of these teachers were from around here.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	Oh. So you had a different teacher every year.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	And how many kids were in your class?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh, it was a lot of them.
Ms. Brand:	Was it?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. And then after we left that old school up on the hill, they built us another school back in '31 or '32.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And we all went to that one.
Ms. Brand:	Oh.
Mrs. Rush:	A little one-room school.
Ms. Brand:	How big was the other one?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, the other one was kind of a little smaller than our last one that they built for us.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm. So-
Mrs. Rush:	I think William, he went to that one. Where they built that new one.
Ms. Brand:	Ok.
Mrs. Rush:	That they built back in the '30s.
Ms. Brand:	Who built it?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, some people named Mr. Thacker.
Ms. Brand:	Thacker.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. And, of course, he had some help. We don't know-I don't know too much about what his help was named. I used to hear him call him 'Mr. Reed' I don't know what his real name was.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to stand around and watch them, you know, fix it. Watch them when they'd be sawing off the pieces and putting them up, you know.
Ms. Brand:	Hm!
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. And used to have to go to the spring for them to get them some fresh water.
Ms. Brand:	Oh! Cause I was kind of surprised that you remember the name of the guy, just thinking that you were probably only about six or seven years old...
Mrs. Rush:	Oh, about... yup. Maybe I wasn't quite that old.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	But, I don't know why. (laughs) When you're that young you can remember things then better than you can now!
Ms. Brand:	Right. You just remember it!
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm! Because a lot of things happened after I done got older, but I can't remember it.
Ms. Brand:	I guess those years really-
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs)
Ms. Brand:	You know, they were kind of important.
Mrs. Rush:	The younger ones, they just stay in your head I guess.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah, I think that's probably true. So did they build it because there were too many kids in the old school? Is that what happened?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. It was getting right small. Kids were coming on. Of course, it wasn't but one room, but it was a big one.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	I-
Ms. Brand:	So what kind of things-oh, go ahead.
Mrs. Rush:	I think Ms. Quarles, she was my last teacher.
Ms. Brand:	What grade was that?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh, that was about the... seventh or the eighth grade.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Or it was the ninth or the tenth...
Ms. Brand:	Oh, you went pretty far!
Mr. Rush:	Ms. Quarles wasn't your last teacher.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, Ms. Quarles was!
Mr. Rush:	Ms. Lightfoot and Ms. Price came after Ms. Quarles.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm! (indicates no)
Mr. Rush:	Ms. Quarles was my first teacher, how could she be your last teacher?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah... well, that's the only one that I went to.
Mr. Rush:	You were with Ms. Lightfoot?
Mrs. Rush:	Last... Ms. Lightfoot, she was before Ms. Quarles.
Mr. Rush:	No she wasn't. She was after Ms. Quarles. Ms. Lightfoot came when I was staying out at Mr. Snow's. Ms. Quarles-I was here.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Ms. Lightfoot didn't teach in the new school.
Ms. Brand:	Were they-
Mrs. Rush:	Ms. Sellars, she could have been.
Mr. Rush:	I ain't never known her. I've seen her, but I ain't never known her.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Were they teachers in Charlottesville? Or wherever they came from?
Mrs. Rush:	I reckon, I don't know.
Ms. Brand:	So, they would just bring somebody over and she would teach everybody? Just one teacher?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. (indicates yes)
Ms. Brand:	And she taught everything?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Was it always women?
Mrs. Rush:	Always.
Mr. Rush:	Pretty much.
Ms. Brand:	Always. Was there a principal?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	No.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, it was a-
Mr. Rush:	No. A superintendent.
Mrs. Rush:	I thought there...
Mr. Rush:	Superintendents come up around here every once in a while. There was Mrs... what's her name?
Mrs. Rush:	What was her name?
Mr. Rush:	It was Mary... it was Mary somebody.
Mrs. Rush:	Ms. Virginia Mary.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, Virginia Mary. She was school-whatever she was. I don't know.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm. But she didn't stay at the school.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Mrs. Rush:	No. She used to just visit the school.
Ms. Brand:	I guess to make sure that... you were being taught what you're supposed to be taught or something?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Um... So what kind of things did you do when you were at school?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, I did reading, ...
Ms. Brand:	Reading.
Mrs. Rush:	Writing, arithmetic, geography...
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	History.
Ms. Brand:	What kind of history did they teach?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh, about-most things about the people fighting where they couldn't get along with each other.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm. Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	And they're doing the same thing now.
Ms. Brand:	Pretty much the same thing? Yeah. And were there-did you have any, like, activities with the kids? Like different games and things that you did together?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah! We used to go over to Washington Park then.
Ms. Brand:	In Charlottesville.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. And play against other schools.
Ms. Brand:	Oh yeah? What-
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Cismont, ...
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And Louisa. Our school used to play against that school, playing dodge ball, pole relay.
Ms. Brand:	What's that?
Mrs. Rush:	Pole. Pole relay? You run and hold a stick in your hand?
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh... oh, pole relay.
Mrs. Rush:	And you outrun that person, and then you pass the stick-
Ms. Brand:	To the next person.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Then he starts running.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And flag relay.
Ms. Brand:	Flag.
Mrs. Rush:	And that's running, taking sticks up out cups.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	And put them back in the cups. Who use to ever do it, that school would win the game.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	And block relay.
Ms. Brand:	Block relay.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, you take up the block and throw them in the box-
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh-as you were running?
Mrs. Rush:	Run back.
Ms. Brand:	Oh.
Mrs. Rush:	And you get another one. Throw over that one...
Ms. Brand:	Oh. Did you play all of those?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah!
Ms. Brand:	All of them?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. (smiles)
Ms. Brand:	Which one was your favorite?
Mrs. Rush:	My favorite one was running. Something which I wasn't too fast-my legs was too short.
Ms. Brand:	Too short?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. I was the shortest one in school!
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Were you?
Mrs. Rush:	But they used to put me in pole relay. They always let me run first, and the ones behind was taller than me
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	So-
Ms. Brand:	They could catch up
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. They'd do the catching.
Ms. Brand:	But you like running.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Did you do it a lot?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh, yeah! I used to play in it a lot. Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	And what kinds of games did you used to play, um, you know, outside of school?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh, we used to play 'ring around the rosies...'
Ms. Brand:	Oh yeah?
Mrs. Rush:	'Pocket full of posies...'
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And used to play 'spin the bottle.'
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Whosoever the mouth of the bottle turned to, that's the one you're supposed to run after and give him a kiss.
	(Mrs. Rush, Mr. Rush & Ms. Brand laugh)
Ms. Brand:	So you liked that one?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	No?
	(Mrs. Rush & Ms. Brand laugh)
Ms. Brand:	I remember that one too... I guess some things don't change.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	So who would you play with?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we used to have playmates there - Dorothy Rush, Hazel Rush, Louis Rush, Joel Rush, Eva Rush...
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Uh, sounds like you had some family around. Oh, your family.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, we used.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, they was all kin to William. They used to live right next door to us. You know, not next door near them, but not to farther from where we lived.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh. You used to play with William?
	(Mr. Rush nods)
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	No.
Mrs. Rush:	I wouldn't play with him. The only time we'd see each other, when we was going to school, or to Sunday school one. After that we never did see each other.
Ms. Brand:	After Sunday school at church?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. And school days.
Ms. Brand:	It was at school or at church?
Mr. Rush:	Well, at church and at school. Sunday school, and most of the things. The most that I used to see him was at school. Every day school. And after that, well, we never did see each other too much because they stayed on this side of the hill and we was on that other side of the hill.
Ms. Brand:	So I guess you didn't think you'd be marrying him one day.
Mrs. Rush:	No. I didn't. (laughs)
Ms. Brand:	So he's younger than you, right? Mr. Rush.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. About a year and a half.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, a year and a half.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	I guess when you're six it makes a difference.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So you were in school for a long while, it sounds like.
Mrs. Rush:	Oh yeah. I stayed up with my father's sister for a while and I went to the school in Esmont.
Ms. Brand:	Oh! So you switched.
Mrs. Rush:	It wasn't Yancey's then. It was just a plain long wooden school.
Ms. Brand:	How come you didn't stay at the Chestnut Grove school?
Mrs. Rush:	Because I had done-passed the grades in that one.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, that was just for the first few years.
Mrs. Rush:	Just for the first few years. I think it went high into the eighth or the ninth grade.
Ms. Brand:	Oh. And you went past eighth or ninth grade.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. (indicates yes)
Ms. Brand:	Wow. That must have not been too usual back when you were a kid, right?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	Not too many kids went that far.
Mrs. Rush:	Nope, it's a lot of them that went farther, I guess, but...
Ms. Brand:	There was? Hm...
Mrs. Rush:	But they never did go to high school.
Ms. Brand:	Mmm. And you did.
Mrs. Rush:	And I went there for about almost a year, I guess.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
	(pause)
Ms. Brand:	Um...
Mrs. Rush:	And as I grew older, about 18, 19, 16, 17, 18... I went to work. I used to stay on my job, where I worked at.
Ms. Brand:	Where was that?
Mrs. Rush:	That was up in Manioc, Virginia.
Ms. Brand:	Manioc?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. For a dollar a week.
Ms. Brand:	A dollar a week. Wow. That wasn't too much.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. Washing, cooking, ironing...
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	Scrubbing...
Ms. Brand:	And this was all for one family?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So you lived in their house.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. I stayed on the job.
Ms. Brand:	So I guess you weren't going to school any more when you started doing that.
Mrs. Rush:	No, mm-mm.
Ms. Brand:	How far is Manioc from here?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh, Manioc is a good little jump up the river.
Ms. Brand:	Up the river?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup, you used to have to ride the train.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm. Was that the Hardware River?
Mrs. Rush:	James.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, James.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. James River.
Ms. Brand:	So how did you get that job?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, my mama-after my father died my mama got married again.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And so she got me that job up there.
Ms. Brand:	She knew those people?
Mrs. Rush:	yup. She used to work for the man's sister. They were staying on the place up there with his sister.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And she got me the job there.
Ms. Brand:	So she was working there at the same time?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, she used to do a little day's work, but not too much because William's sisters used to work for her too. And my stepfather, he was just staying on the farm up there.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, so he worked there too.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. He worked on the farm, you know, plowing and planting.
Ms. Brand:	I see. (pause) Um... So how long did you stay at that job?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, I stayed there about a little better than a year.
Ms. Brand:	Oh!
	(end of first part of interview)
Mrs. Rush:	Then after I left from there I went to work for some folks by the name of Hankel.
Ms. Brand:	Hancock.
Mrs. Rush:	Hankel. H-A-N-K-E-L.
Ms. Brand:	Oh.
Mrs. Rush:	They used to live down below Keene. Me and another girl worked for them.
Ms. Brand:	You and one of your sisters?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no) One of my friends whose name was Dillard. Kathleen Dillard.
Ms. Brand:	Kathleen Dillard.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. She and her little brother used to work there too. Jack.
Ms. Brand:	And what would you do there?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, the same thing! Washing, ironing, cooking, canning...
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	I think we got 15 dollars a week.
Ms. Brand:	Well, that was a difference from one dollar a week!
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah!
Ms. Brand:	But I'm sure it still wasn't too much!
Mrs. Rush:	Nope. But right then we thought it was something.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Well, uh-the place where I used to get that dollar a week, they raised it to 2.
	(pause, Ms. Brand nods her head in disbelief, Mr. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	And then they started paying me 4 dollars a month.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. So it went down.
Mrs. Rush:	They started paying me that.
Ms. Brand:	That was the one in-down at...
Mrs. Rush:	Up in Manioc.
Ms. Brand:	Manioc.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. So I took that 4 dollars a month, and I started saving it from the first part of the year. I used to save a little piece of it and then I bought my nephew and my sister and my mom and my stepfather, I bought all of them something for Christmas.
Ms. Brand:	Ohhhh!
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	Do you remember what you got them?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, I got the little boys-I went to Farmville and I bought each one of them some little underclothes.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. And little undershirts.
Ms. Brand:	Mm!
Mrs. Rush:	And you could get them for 59 and 69 cents then.
Ms. Brand:	For one...
Mrs. Rush:	For one pair.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	And I bought my sister a dress, and I bought mama a dress, and I bought my stepfather a shirt.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. I can't believe you remember all this.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Mrs. Rush:	And I bought them, you know, some candy and nuts and oranges...
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Of course, we used to make the Christmas-tree dressing for to put on the Christmas tree.
Ms. Brand:	You used to make it yourself.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah!
Ms. Brand:	Out of what?
Mrs. Rush:	Spools. We may color the spools, and get some kind of paper and kinda curl it up?
Ms. Brand:	Yeah!
Mrs. Rush:	The paper up, and hang on the tree. And when the men folks use to smoke cigarettes, see the pack they used to get? It used to have this silver-
Mrs. Rush & Ms. Brand:	Paper.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mrs. Rush:	And we used to collect all of that from them, and put that on our Christmas tree, make it into little different kinds of ornaments.
Ms. Brand:	Oh! That was pretty smart!
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs) And put on the Christmas tree.
Ms. Brand:	So you just used whatever was around.
Mrs. Rush:	Yup. Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	You had to be creative.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	You couldn't just go and buy ready-made ornaments.
Mrs. Rush:	Noooo! We didn't even know nothing about no ready-made ornaments then. Pretty much everybody then used to make their own trimming for the Christmas tree.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, I think that's so nice. Even though I know it wasn't by choice, I still think, you know, it's a nice opportunity to work together and be creative and the rest of it... So Christmas was a big holiday in your family?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh yeah. That was the best time of the year for me.
Ms. Brand:	Was it?
Mrs. Rush:	Was Christmas.
Ms. Brand:	Why?
Mrs. Rush:	Because everybody used to enjoy Christmas.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mrs. Rush:	As children, we used to didn't get much, but yet and still we used to love it.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to go, you know, from neighbors to neighbors, and they'd give us a little bag of candy, or a slice of cake or something.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
	(Phyllis, one of Mrs. Rush & Mr. Rush's daughters, comes out of one of the rooms and sits with us in the living room for a while)
Ms. Brand:	Hello.
Ms. Rush:	Hi.
Mrs. Rush:	Of course, children nowadays, they've seen everything. Everything you get for Christmas is in stores right now.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	And that's why it don't seems like Christmas.
Ms. Brand:	It doesn't, yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Because when you got ours, ours didn't come in the stores- (laughs) Not until almost time for you to get them for Christmas.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mr. Rush:	You didn't see an orange until Thanksgiving.
Ms. Brand:	You didn't what?
Mr. Rush:	See an orange.
Ms. Brand:	Until Thanksgiving.
Mr. Rush:	Until after Thanksgiving.
Ms. Brand:	Until after Thanksgiving.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah. You see one in the store year round now.
Ms. Brand:	That's right.
Mr. Rush:	At that time you didn't see that kind of stuff.
Mrs. Rush:	And nuts and things, you see them in stores.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And children, a whole lot of them would get a lot for their birthdays.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And when my birthday used to come, well, I never did get anything.
Mr. Rush:	You'd get a year older.
Mrs. Rush:	That's all.
	(Ms. Brand & Mrs. Rush laugh)
Mr. Rush:	Boy...
Ms. Brand:	Did people come from out of town? Did you get visitors during Christmas?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no) the only people who I visited were the ones where I stayed, right in your neighborhood.
Ms. Brand:	Right. So what would you do for other holidays? What other holidays would you celebrate? Christmas...
Mrs. Rush:	No more than Christmas.
Ms. Brand:	And Thanksgiving? You didn't do anything for Thanksgiving?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no) No. I didn't even know it was a Thanksgiving. The only holidays you would celebrate was Christmas.
Ms. Brand:	And... What would you do during the summers while you were going to school?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we used to have snow so bad-during the time when William and I was growing up-it usually started snowing around about the last part of October and November.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And then it snowed from that time clean up until about March or April.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	The snow would still be on the ground, and the teachers, they couldn't get to our schools. The only time we'd have school is in about the last part of April or May.
Ms. Brand:	Ohhh.
Mrs. Rush:	And our school used to close the last of May, and we done been out of school clean up to December.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. Someone else told me about the winters. Someone else mentioned how bad the winters were. Oh, it was Mr. Payne, the barber. He was telling how it was snow up until April.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	It's hard to believe now.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. We used to really get snow then.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And when it didn't snow, well then it used to rain and the creeks would get high. Well, the teachers, when they used to come to school they used to have to cross creeks and things, so...
Ms. Brand:	So...
Mrs. Rush:	So they couldn't teach.
Ms. Brand:	Hm. So they would close school the first of May even though you hadn't been in school.
Mrs. Rush:	Yup.
Ms. Brand:	For all that time?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. So what would you do at home while-when you didn't have to go to school for the snow?
	(Mr. Rush is talking on the phone)
Mrs. Rush:	Nothing but be on the inside of the house.
Ms. Brand:	Just stay inside.
Mrs. Rush:	Papa used to break a path and we used to go down to our spring if they'd break a path in the snow.
Ms. Brand:	Right. And go down to the spring to get water?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	So you would just stay at home with your brothers and sisters.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Would you play with them? Or do things with them?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, yeah.
Ms. Brand:	What kinds of things?
Mrs. Rush:	We all played together.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	It wasn't so much we could do on the outside.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to have to stay on the inside.
Ms. Brand:	Too cold.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to play dominos-mm-hm. That was our favorite game.
Ms. Brand:	Was it?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Um... So I'm gonna jump back to now when you said you were older and you were working... You had the first job in Manioc, then you had the next job in Keene.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	And then how long did you stay at the job in Keene?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we stayed there for about a couple of years.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, a while! You and your friend.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	And how did you get there?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we used to stay on the place.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, you stayed there.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	They gave us a room.
Ms. Brand:	You shared the room together?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Me and-the girl had a room and her little- (tape cuts off)
	(end side 1 / begin side 2)
Ms. Brand:	So he had his own room.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So where did you go after that?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, I started working for a man and his wife in Esmont, was named Baron and Baroness. He was from Denmark, and the Baroness, she was from New York.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	Well, I started working for them.
Ms. Brand:	And you did the same thing?
Mrs. Rush:	The same thing. Me and another girl, another woman, Cora.
Ms. Brand:	Cora?
Mrs. Rush:	(inaudible) or something. She used to work there too for them.
Ms. Brand:	Was she also from around here?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, she used to stay in Warren, Virginia.
Ms. Brand:	Warren.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So what kind of things would you do when you weren't working for them? In your time off. Or did you even have time off?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	You did?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Well, I'd just go to church on Sundays and back there on Mondays.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. Did you have a chance to go back home? To come back here?-or to your home?
Mrs. Rush:	Uh... yeah. But my mama and father, they were all deceased then.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, they were already.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	So on weekends, would you-where-would you stay on the-at their house?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Or would you go anywhere?
Mrs. Rush:	No. we'd just stay on the job mostly on the weekends.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	When I didn't go down to my sister's.
Ms. Brand:	Where was your sister living?
Mrs. Rush:	She was living in Esmont.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, she was.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Then.
Ms. Brand:	Was she already married?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	What's that?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, she was living in Esmont then. When I used to work for Baron.
Ms. Brand:	Hm. So which church did you use to go to?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we used to go to New Hope Church in Esmont.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. Was it Reverend Ward? Was he the minister?
Mr. Rush:	Reverend Hughes.
Mrs. Rush:	Reverend Hughes. (to Mr. Rush:) I though it was Reverend (inaudible). (pause) Yeah, it was Reverend Hughes.
Ms. Brand:	Hughes. Is that the same one you had been going to since you were a kid?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no) When I was a kid I used to go to Reverend Allen in Chestnut Grove.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok. So why did you go to New Hope?
Mrs. Rush:	Because that's where we were staying at that time, in Esmont.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, so it was closer.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	So, so on your-that's what you would do when you had time off?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Did you do things at the church? Or, you mean the services, or other things too?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, when they have service there, or plays, or speaking or something like that, you know, we always or usually go.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm. Wow, so they had a lot of things going on over there.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	It was very active.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Do you still go there? To New Hope?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no) I haven't been to New Hope now for quite some time.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Uh, William and I, we used to go out there pretty often, but since I got laid up in the house all the time, well, I don't get out much.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Anymore.
Ms. Brand:	But that's the one you kept on going to?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah
Ms. Brand:	Even when you got to be married and had kids
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, mm-hm. We used to go there.
Ms. Brand:	Hm. So when did you meet Mr. Rush? Or when did you... well, you met him already. But when did you...
Mrs. Rush:	Yup, I think-we met at the church, did we?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no) Met at my cousin's house, at Cliff's.
Mrs. Rush:	Hm. We met at his cousin's house.
Ms. Brand:	You mean, you met the first time when you were little kids? Or you're talking about when you were older?
Mr. Rush:	(laughs) No! No, no... we grew up together when were little kids.
Ms. Brand:	Right. So you're talking about after you came back from working on the railroad.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So it was at your cousin's house?
	(inaudible)
Ms. Brand:	Do you remember that, Mr. Rush?
Mr. Rush:	Do I remember?
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	Sure, I remember the very day.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah?
Mr. Rush:	I don't remember what day it was, but I remember it was a Sunday afternoon when I drove this nice car up in the yard, and she seen the car and liked it, so... she decided to try to get close to me and...
Ms. Brand:	The two-tone Packard.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	I saw one of those on TV the other day.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah?
Ms. Brand:	So I knew... then I knew what you were talking about.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	That was a nice looking car.
Mr. Rush:	A nice looking car, yes.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	I tell you, it was beautiful. Yeah. (pause) So, we hit it on from there.
Ms. Brand:	So how old were you then?
Mrs. Rush:	I was up in my twenties.
Mr. Rush:	You were twenty... twenty-two.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, about twenty-two or twenty-three.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Because I think I was going on 25 before we got married.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. That's pretty... that's pretty old for that time, right?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Most people would have been married by then? Or...
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs) I don't know.
Ms. Brand:	No.
Mrs. Rush:	But I think we must best wait a little while.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah. Nothing wrong with that... (laughs) But you got married when...
Mr. Rush:	That's what you're doing now, right?
Ms. Brand:	That's what I'm doing.
	(Mrs. Rush, Mr. Rush & Ms. Brand laugh)
Ms. Brand:	I'm... I'm just about 30. Um... so you were 22 when you met...
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	And you were 25 when you got married.
Mrs. Rush:	Yup.
Ms. Brand:	So you went out for 3 years.
Mrs. Rush:	Yup. We courted for a little while.
Ms. Brand:	Courted. What would you do? What kind of things would you do?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, he took me to church, and took me to the movies...
Ms. Brand:	Oh yeah?
Mrs. Rush:	Places like that.
Ms. Brand:	Was there a movie theater around here?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	In town.
Mrs. Rush:	No, it was in town. And we didn't like dancing so much, so we never did go out to no dancing. Because he couldn't dance, and I couldn't dance either.
Ms. Brand:	Oh yeah? (laughs)
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	Well, I guess movies is good then. Movie works.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Um, what movie theater would you used to go to? Do you remember?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we used to go to Paramount.
Ms. Brand:	Paramount?
Mrs. Rush:	And sometimes Jefferson.
Ms. Brand:	Oh yeah?
Mrs. Rush:	Sometimes Lafayette...
Ms. Brand:	And those used to show different kinds of movies? Is that right?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So what was each one known for?
Mr. Rush:	Westerns mostly.
Ms. Brand:	All of them?
Mr. Rush:	Most of them.
Mrs. Rush:	Lafayette. He used to show mostly Westerns.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	And... what did Jefferson show most?
Mr. Rush:	Oh, they'd show most anything.
Mrs. Rush:	Classics. Mostly. And Paramount, it showed sometimes these rated pictures.
Ms. Brand:	Rated. What does that mean?
Mrs. Rush:	Rated.
Mr. Rush:	X-rated. X.
Ms. Brand:	Ohhh... really!
	(pause)
Ms. Brand:	And would you do other things out in Charlottesville?
Mrs. Rush:	We used to...
Mr. Rush:	Get on top the hill and drink beer.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to go to a place by the name 'The Hilltop'.
Ms. Brand:	You did what?
Mr. Rush:	Sit on top of Vinegar Hill and drink beer.
Ms. Brand:	Really!
Mr. Rush:	Listen to records.
Ms. Brand:	Out-you'd stay outdoors? Or sit...
Mr. Rush:	No, inside. Restaurant.
Mrs. Rush:	Sit on the inside in the restaurant.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, there's a restaurant. Oh... (pause) Listen to records.
Mr. Rush:	Piccolo. Piccolo. Juice box, we called it.
Ms. Brand:	Jukebox?
	(Mr. Rush nods)
Ms. Brand:	What kind of music did you listen to?
Mr. Rush:	Whatever comes on. We enjoyed it all.
Ms. Brand:	What did used to come on? Who would it have been?
Mr. Rush:	Well, most of the time it was... boogie woogie was on.
Ms. Brand:	Who?
Mr. Rush:	Boogie woogie
Ms. Brand:	Booky Wookie?
Mr. Rush:	Yeah!...
Ms. Brand:	Oh, I never heard of that.
Mr. Rush:	You never heard of boogie woogie?
Ms. Brand:	No, is that a name of a band or something.
Mr. Rush:	Oh, that was a-yeah, that was a (swats fly) a nice, a nice little-that's what young people playing and dancing to. You ever known Bobby-what they call the Bobby socks?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Mr. Rush:	Wear short skirts, and dance?
Ms. Brand:	Uh-uh. This is a whole new world you're telling me right now.
Mr. Rush:	Oh yeah? Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Bobby socks?
Mr. Rush:	Uh-huh.
Ms. Brand:	Is that those little short white ones?
Mr. Rush:	Uh-huh. Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mr. Rush:	Jitterbug...
Ms. Brand:	Oh, but Bobby Socks was a name of a dance?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Oh! Jitterbug.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. Yeah. Yes indeed. It was hot.
Ms. Brand:	But you didn't dance.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Mr. Rush:	No.
Ms. Brand:	You just listened.
Mr. Rush:	I just enjoyed looking.
Mrs. Rush:	Just listened and watch them.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, other people used to dance.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	So you'd just sit there and watch.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	That's nice.
Mr. Rush:	I'd get up there and try to do a little something, but I didn't do nothing much.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	I never could dance.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Mr. Rush:	My feet always had been too big.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. (pause) Were there any bands that you could go listen to? Live music?
Mr. Rush:	Mmm... no. Uh-uh. (indicates no)
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Mr. Rush:	We didn't have none of those.
Ms. Brand:	I mean, I guess there was the music in church.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, that department had an organ or something in the church.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mr. Rush:	That was all. Couldn't nobody half play back then, but now it's-everything in there now. Piano, string music, you got an organ, you got-we got a piano that actually we bought. It's about five things in one: you got a band, got an organ, got a piano, you got jazz-right on to that thing-you got...
Ms. Brand:	In the organ.
Mr. Rush:	Into that one machine.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. You got to see whatever you want to hear, you hit the little key and you play that one, or you play the next one.
Ms. Brand:	Oh.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. That thing is nice.
Ms. Brand:	Where is that? At church.
Mr. Rush:	At church, mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Oh ok.
Mr. Rush:	Anybody comes by, says, 'well, I can't play this kind of music.'
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mr. Rush:	Well, you got a button, you strike on it and you can play.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	But were there any musicians, like, around town that used to play? Guitar, or...
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, it was some round in town, but I didn't go to hear them play so much. You'd go down to the Boardwalk, or...
Ms. Brand:	Boardwalk?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. In Charlottesville.
Ms. Brand:	Where is a boardwalk?
Mr. Rush:	Well, I don't know where it is now, but Charlottesville's been changed around since. It used to be down there on a place called-down off of Commerce Street, back in there.
Ms. Brand:	On Commerce Street?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. But since then they tore that place out now. Changed everything.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, that's what used to be Vinegar Hill?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. Down there was part of Vinegar Hill.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah. So what was the boardwalk?
Mr. Rush:	It was something like a-something like a club that you go to.
Ms. Brand:	Ohhhh! I thought you meant like a road that you walk down.
Mr. Rush:	Oh, no. That's the name of the place.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, that was the name of it. I see. So they had music over there. Musicians.
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Ok. Did you all used to listen to music when you were at home?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, we used to have a old Victrola.
Ms. Brand:	You did?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Used to turn it.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mrs. Rush:	Turn the handle.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. And when the spring used to break in it, we used to get a spring out of a clock.
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Oh, really?
Mrs. Rush:	And put in that old machine and keep playing it.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to sharpen the needles on a brick.
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Oh yeah?
Mrs. Rush:	If the needles get dull, it won't have played.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to sharpen them on a brick-we weren't able to buy none.
Ms. Brand:	You had a Victrola in your house, (indicates Mr. & Mrs. Rush) or in the house that you were growing up in?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we used to have one at home. My father bought one for us. And his cousin, they used to have one.
Ms. Brand:	And did you have one also when you-after you got married?
Mrs. Rush:	Mmm... No, but we used to go next door and listen to them, though. William and I did. We used to go up to his cousin's house and we used to listen to all kinds of records, and used to play dominos during that time we was up there... either cards- 'pitty-pat' we called it.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	But mostly we used to play was dominos.
Ms. Brand:	You liked that one.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. So William and I used to go up there right smart after we got married.
Ms. Brand:	Huh. So where did you get married?
Mrs. Rush:	We got married at our preacher's house.
Ms. Brand:	At his home?
Mrs. Rush:	Reverend Allen's home.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	Won't nobody there but his mom, Roberta, and my mom, Georgeanna, and the reverend's wife, her name was Birdie Allen.
Ms. Brand:	And the two of you.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	One, two, three, four, five people. All told. Oh, and the minister. Six people.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	That's all.
Ms. Brand:	Not too many people.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no) Came back home, we didn't have too many folks at his house down there. Of course, that wasn't the house, but the house what he was in then, that one got burned down.
Ms. Brand:	Right... right, right.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So you moved in together to your family's house?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Ok. Mr. Rush's house. Not... (pause). And how long did you stay in that place? In that house?
Mr. Rush:	Oh, about two years probably. Before I built my house.
Ms. Brand:	Two years?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	And you said, 'before you started building your house'?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Ok. And that was here.
Mr. Rush:	This house.
Ms. Brand:	Right. This very house?
Mr. Rush:	This very house
Ms. Brand:	Oh wow. So when was that? That you built it.
Mr. Rush:	1952.
Ms. Brand:	1952. And you built that one-this one-yourself, right?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. Most of it.
Ms. Brand:	Most of it. That's right, you were saying except for, like, the plumbing, or...
Mr. Rush:	Yes, and that...
Ms. Brand:	The woodwork.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah. So did you have any kids when you moved in? Did you already have kids?
Mr. Rush:	Two.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. We had two.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	And I think-we had three, won't it? Shorty and Junior. Junior born there at the house. Junior was the only one born down there.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	The rest of them born up here.
Ms. Brand:	In the house.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	With the midwife.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah. So you had eight kids, right?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	And...
Mrs. Rush:	I had two before I got married. Patricia and John.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	They was my two oldest ones.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	And then you had six more.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	That's a lot of work.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	And you raised them all in this house.
Mrs. Rush:	Yup.
Ms. Brand:	And then your youngest son still-he lives here, right?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Mrs. Rush:	No. Of course he-
Mr. Rush:	He comes in and out, but he don't live here. He stays down the road there with his nephew, baby-sitting for him.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mr. Rush:	And a second-our oldest son, he lives in the third house.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, James. I don't think he'll ever go no farther than here.
Ms. Brand:	He likes staying next to his parents.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	I don't blame him.
Mrs. Rush:	He's a little over forty.
Ms. Brand:	Hm. So he stays close to home?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup.
Ms. Brand:	And the other kids?
Mrs. Rush:	All of them out.
Ms. Brand:	But close-nearby? Or...
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Geneva stays in Charlottesville.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mrs. Rush:	And Patricia, she stays up at Albarene. And Junior.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, I saw that: 'Albarene Road' - is that where Albarene is? When you go down Esmont Road?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Ok. And Julius?
Mrs. Rush:	Junior.
Ms. Brand:	Junior.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, William Junior. Named after his dad.
Ms. Brand:	I see.
Mrs. Rush:	He stays up there. They don't live so farther from each other.
Ms. Brand:	Geneva and...
Mrs. Rush:	Patricia-no, Patricia and Junior.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, Patricia.
Mrs. Rush:	Geneva, she lives in Charlottesville.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok. Right.
Mrs. Rush:	And my daughter Phyllis, who left from out here, she stays right across the yard.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, right here. Ok.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. She lives there.
Ms. Brand:	So you get to see them a lot.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So you were having kids into your wh-like, 20s and 30s.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. I think I was up in my thirties when I had my last one
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm. So were you staying at home at the time?
Mrs. Rush:	I was up here.
Ms. Brand:	Working at home?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup.
Ms. Brand:	Raising the kids
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	And where did-
Mrs. Rush:	I used to work. I had somebody to take care of my little kids for me and I used to work, and when my children got big enough to go to school by themselves, well, I still worked.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	I worked until I was 62.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	Or 63. I worked for Ms. Curtley. Worked for her round about 20-some years.
Ms. Brand:	Wow!
Mrs. Rush:	And I worked for Dr. Kenmore for about three; Dr. Perry Ellow about 3 or 4; and I think Ms. Wisesinger, she was the last ones I worked for.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. And you did day's work over there?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	So you would come home every day.
Mrs. Rush:	Come home every evening and work at home.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. My goodness.
Mrs. Rush:	Canning.
Ms. Brand:	So you'd work all day, and then come home and work some more. (laughs)
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Right.
Ms. Brand:	That's tough.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Help can stuff.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mrs. Rush:	Me and my husband, we used to go out and buy peaches or something-I used to can them up after I'd get home.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. You used to buy peaches?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm
Ms. Brand:	Where would you buy them?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, from any peach orchard.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, you could actually go to the orchard.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	And buy it straight from there.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	You didn't have to go to the store to get it.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	Would you-which store-would you go to the store for anything?
Mrs. Rush:	Oh yeah. We used to deal at stores.
Ms. Brand:	What kind of things-would you get there?
Mrs. Rush:	Well, we used to buy beans, rice, flour, and...
Ms. Brand:	Mm, right.
Mrs. Rush:	Of course we used to raise our own meats. We didn't have to buy none of that.
Ms. Brand:	Right. That's what I remember you saying.
Mrs. Rush:	And we used to raise our own chicken-didn't have to buy eggs too much.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	So, the most things we bought was just beans and flour and milk, and stuff for the kids.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah. (pause) It was a lot of work you all did! (laughs)
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	It's hard for me to imagine. I think I work hard, but when I hear-you know-what you all had to do, it kind of makes me feel lazy.
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs) Yeah, we used to have to do that.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	When you're raising a family, you used to have to work.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to have to go out and buy beef until William thought about buying a calf, raising it and killing it himself.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. So you did that?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup.
Ms. Brand:	Huh. You raised a cow over here.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, we used to have a calf.
Ms. Brand:	Was it a milk cow? Or...
Mrs. Rush:	Yup. She was a milk cow. William used to milk her when the boys didn't milk her.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	I used to churn-used to get the butter.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. You did everything.
Mrs. Rush:	(laughs) Yup.
Ms. Brand:	You know it's hard for people-you know, growing up my age-to appreciate all the work that goes into these things, because I just go to the store and buy butter and don't think anything of it, you know? As far as I know butter comes from a refrigerator! You know? It comes from the store! (Mr. Rush and Mrs. Rush laugh) But, um, you know it's important to hear-to kind of remember that.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to dry our own lard.
Ms. Brand:	You used to dry the lard?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Oh-oh, you mean separate it.
Mrs. Rush:	Used to kill hogs and cut the fat off from the lean.
Ms. Brand:	Right, right.
Mrs. Rush:	And we used to dry that up into lard.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	And we'd have cracklings-all that fat would be cracklings. Hard and crispy-like.
Ms. Brand:	Right. You deep-fry it.
Mrs. Rush:	No, we put in an old black pot.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mrs. Rush:	And make a fire on the outside.
Ms. Brand:	Ohhh.
Mrs. Rush:	And set that pot on the fire.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	And we'd put all of that fat that you done cut up.
Ms. Brand:	Uh-huh.
Mrs. Rush:	We'd put that in that pot.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	We put about-I used to put about half a cup of water in the bottom of it.
Ms. Brand:	So it won't boil.
Mrs. Rush:	While it would start cooking, yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	And then after that, no more water: Just let it cook.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mrs. Rush:	Until it gets real brown and crispy.
Ms. Brand:	Right. And-one time I had to separate-I'm trying to think what it was-it was the fat... I guess it was just from the little pieces when you pull the fat off, you know how there's little pieces like that stay inside?
Mrs. Rush:	Hm.
Ms. Brand:	And we-we had to boil it, and then all the stuff-all the little pieces would come floating up, and that's how we would separate it out. So is that what y-
Mr. Rush:	Cracklings.
Ms. Brand:	That's cracklings? The stuff on top.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	So you can eat that stuff?
Mr. Rush:	Sure!
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah!
Ms. Brand:	And we threw it all out!
Mr. Rush:	Threw it out! (laughs)
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) We didn't know!
Mr. Rush:	Oh Lord. Hm.
Ms. Brand:	I bet it had some flavor.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, we used to put that in the meal and mix it up.
Ms. Brand:	When you made the ashcakes.
Mr. Rush:	Not the ashcakes, no.
Mrs. Rush:	Not the ashcakes, but just the corn cakes.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok.
Mrs. Rush:	Cornbread.
Ms. Brand:	Oh... I bet it does have flavor, because I remember when we did it, it smelled like you wanted to eat it.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	But I didn't think that you were supposed to.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. (laughs)
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Shows you what we know!
Mr. Rush:	Where were you at when you were doing that?
Ms. Brand:	I was out on some farm, because I was trying to make some soap.
Mr. Rush:	Oh.
Ms. Brand:	And we got the-lard, I guess. But, um, the lady had had it in the fridge for a year, but she had separated it out.
Mr. Rush:	Oh.
Ms. Brand:	So, uh-she just, it was just me and my friend. My friend, she kind of grew up in a farm, but not really. And then me, I grew up in the city.
	(Mr. Rush & Mrs. Rush laugh)
Ms. Brand:	So we-we thought we knew what we were doing! (laughs) And the funny thing is, when we made the soap it ended up smelling like... Barbeque.
Mrs. Rush:	It did.
Ms. Brand:	You know, hog or something.
Mrs. Rush:	It's a terrible smell.
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) It didn't smell too great, but it worked. Did you ever make soap?
Mrs. Rush:	No.
Ms. Brand:	Was that something that people made?
Mrs. Rush:	No. I think-did your mama make some soap once?
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, they used to make it, but I ain't never made none.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	No, but we had never made none. But I think his mama, I think she made some once or twice. But-
Ms. Brand:	So you used to buy your soap?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup. Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	It takes a long time. I did it a couple of times, it takes about... three weeks total. From when you start until you can actually use it.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
	(pause)
Ms. Brand:	And so where did your kids go to school?
Mrs. Rush:	Some of them-did any of them went over here?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. A little while probably. Charlotte did. Charlotte went over there.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Mm-hm. I think Phyllis and them did, too. They went to Ms. Price for a little while.
Mr. Rush:	They didn't go to school over here.
Mrs. Rush:	Hm?
Mr. Rush:	No. They started school when they were in Esmont.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm. Just Shorty and Baby.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, they went (inaudible) for a little while. The one baby went to (inaudible)
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. They went to Yancey's.
Ms. Brand:	They all went to Yancey.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	It was already called 'Yancey'?
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Called 'Yancey' then.
Ms. Brand:	So all your kids have nicknames. Sounds like. Patricia is 'Baby'...
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Who's 'Shorty'?
Mr. Rush:	That's John.
Mrs. Rush:	That's John.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok. Is he short?
Mr. Rush:	He is short, yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	He's short.
Mr. Rush:	He was. Because he's dead.
Mrs. Rush:	And we called McKinley 'Klunkie'.
Ms. Brand:	Clarky?
Mrs. Rush:	Klunkie. K-L-U-N-K-I-E.
Ms. Brand:	(laughs) Klunkie? Why is that?
Mrs. Rush:	I don't know why I named him that. Because his real name is James McKinley.
Ms. Brand:	Right. 'McKinley' like the president, right?
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	Is that who he's named after?
Mrs. Rush:	I don't know who my sister named him after. She just picked that 'McKinley' from out of the blue.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, she picked-she chose his name.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Is she his godmother?
Mrs. Rush:	No. she's just my sister, and she just named him.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. She named almost all of my kids.
Ms. Brand:	She did?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, my sister Gertrude. She named Phyllis.
Ms. Brand:	She did??
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. And she named Geneva.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	And I think she even named our Junior.
Ms. Brand:	Oh yeah?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Did you get to name her kids?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm, no.
Ms. Brand:	So how c-
Mrs. Rush:	She named her kids.
Ms. Brand:	I guess she just had a good knack for names?
Mrs. Rush:	Yup.
Ms. Brand:	Is that what it was?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Yup. Of course, they all are deceased now.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mrs. Rush:	All of my sisters and-
Ms. Brand:	Oh, her children.
Mrs. Rush:	No, her children are still living. She's just deceased.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, your sister.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm. Both my sisters. All three of my sisters.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. And your bro-
Mrs. Rush:	Gertrude, Sarah, Helen, and my mama and dad.
Ms. Brand:	Mmm...
Mrs. Rush:	My mom and dad, they were dead a looong time before my sisters.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-hm.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah it was a rough-it was a rough time to be living. It wasn't easy.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	We think we got it bad.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	But you know. So many things are, just come to us so easy we don't even think about it.
	(Mrs. Rush laughs)
Ms. Brand:	And your brother is still around?
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Ms. Brand:	Oh.
Mrs. Rush:	He passed too.
Ms. Brand:	So you've been living in this house since '52.
Mrs. Rush:	Yep.
Ms. Brand:	Do you see a lot of changes in-kind of in-in the world? You know, in terms of what kinds of experiences people have, and the world people live in from when you were kids to when you had kids to the kids now?
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, there's a lot of changes. Big changes.
Mrs. Rush:	Yes, a lot of changes.
Mr. Rush:	As the world was like then-when I was coming up as it is now, I had to-if I-of course, I was young, but I had the sense then. And were I had to opportunity that people get now, I could have been anything.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mr. Rush:	But now, see, at that time we didn't have opportunities for nothing. To do nothing, to learn nothing, or...
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mr. Rush:	But now, you see, you've got the opportunity to be all you want to be.
Mrs. Rush & Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	All you want to do, and children won't take the advantage of it. You got a chance to go to school.
Ms. Brand:	Mm-hm.
Mr. Rush:	You can go to school where-you know, where you want to, and you got a good way to get to school, because we never even rode the school bus.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	We had to go ahead and walk there.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah, that's right.
Mr. Rush:	But now they got a chance to get everything-they didn't have food in school- you left home hungry, you came back hungry.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mr. Rush:	So, you see...
Ms. Brand:	They didn't have any food at school?
Mr. Rush:	Uh-uh. (indicates no) No, we didn't have no food back then.
Mrs. Rush:	Mm-mm. (indicates no)
Mr. Rush:	Didn't even have no bathroom or indoor facility there.
Mrs. Rush:	No.
Ms. Brand:	No facilities?
Mr. Rush:	Uh-uh.
Mrs. Rush:	Indoors.
Mr. Rush:	No water in the school, and (inaudible) no toilet.
Mrs. Rush:	It was an outdoor toilet.
Ms. Brand:	So what did you do? To the bushes?
Mr. Rush:	Went to the outdoors toilet.
Ms. Brand:	Huh?
Mr. Rush:	Had a little toilet outside.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, there was a outhouse.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Outhouse for the girls, and outhouse for the boys.
Mr. Rush:	Had to go down the hill to the spring to get water.
Mrs. Rush:	To the spring to tote the water.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. Water to the school?
Mrs. Rush:	To the school.
Ms. Brand:	What did they use the water for?
Mr. Rush:	Drinking!
Mrs. Rush:	For to drink.
Ms. Brand:	Oh. They had a pitcher for people?
Mr. Rush:	A bucket and cups. Now-school now is just the same as... heaven, I reckon. The way-compared to what it was back in them days!
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	I wish I could be back young again, start out again with the world like it is now.
Ms. Brand:	Hm...
Mr. Rush:	Oh boy.
Mrs. Rush:	Hm...
Mr. Rush:	Be right.
Mrs. Rush:	And in schools now, they've got ready-made heating.
Ms. Brand:	Sure.
Mrs. Rush:	And in our school we had to break a arm load of brush.
Mr. Rush:	Take it on to school.
Mrs. Rush:	Take it to school for to start the fire in the stove after you get there.
Ms. Brand:	Wow. So you all used to bring your own wood to school?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	Used to carry it from home.
Mrs. Rush:	We used to bring some brush.
Mr. Rush:	Get it between them and the school. We were walking anyway.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, you'd pick it up on the way.
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah, we walked anyway. Of course, I was right at the school. But I still have to go across the bushes and break a little brush before we could have a fire in the school.
Ms. Brand:	Right. Wow.
Mrs. Rush:	And if all of men used to cut down trees and things, and saw them up for the school.
Ms. Brand:	Who, the fathers?
Mrs. Rush:	Yeah. Some of your-some of our fathers would cut some wood for the school.
Ms. Brand:	Huh. What would you think if I had a chance-or of someone my age had a chance to go, you know, to visit you when you were kids. What would you think would be the thing that would most surprise me? Or that, you know... that I wouldn't expect to see? Most different.
Mr. Rush:	At that time or this time?
Ms. Brand:	Like if I-you know if someone from my generation could see your life.
Mrs. Rush:	Oh yeah, could visit us when we were kids.
Ms. Brand:	Right, like what would we see? What would surprise us? Or...
Mr. Rush:	First thing that would surprise you-you wouldn't be able to get there.
	(Mrs. Rush & Ms. Brand laughs)
Mr. Rush:	That would be the first thing.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	Once you'd get there, the thing would just be altogether different. I mean, it would be so different that you can't believe it's happening, you know.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	Because I-a friend of mine in Charlottesville that I go to see her once a week, she's from Ohio.
Ms. Brand:	From Ohio?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-hm. And she said when she first came to Virginia she couldn't believe a thing that she was seeing that was going on in Virginia.
Ms. Brand:	Like what?
Mr. Rush:	Like, had signs 'black here, white there.' You couldn't go to a white restaurant, and you couldn't ride the front of a bus. Had to have a little seat on that bus, you had to stand up and wait for until they had a seat. You had to stand up regardless of how far you were going, and then again you couldn't go to a restaurant to buy you no food. You had to go to the window and buy it, pay for it there, and eat it on your way home. You couldn't go in there and sit down and eat it.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mr. Rush:	She said when she seen all that, she couldn't believe stuff like that was still happening in the world. Up there in Ohio it wasn't like that.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, it wasn't?
Mr. Rush:	Mm-mm. Wasn't that bad up there.
Ms. Brand:	Mm.
Mr. Rush:	So she came to Virginia for-it's about 12 or 14 years now. And she said, since it was change, that she can't believe the world had ever been that Jim Crowed.
Ms. Brand:	Wow.
Mr. Rush:	So she was riding the bus one day, said she was coming from somewhere and the bus was crowded, but there was a seat right back next to the-probably one or two seats from the back. There was an available seat, so she went back there and sat down.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	Somebody up from the front of the bus, some white person, they got off somewhere between her place and where she was going to get off at, and the bus driver stopped and let this guy out, looked in the mirror and said, 'that white lady better come over to the front now, if you want. To have a seat up in the front.' She said, 'that's alright. I'm comfortable. I'll stay back here.' So she stayed back there.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, she was a white lady.
Mr. Rush:	Uh-huh. She stayed back with all the black people, sitting back there. And that whole time she was in that little town, she said they never did treat her like she was nobody. She was-didn't hold nothing against the black people.
Ms. Brand:	She was in Charlottesville?
Mr. Rush:	Charlottesville. She said at that time that she didn't realize that people were being treated so cold.
Ms. Brand:	Mm. But even 12 years ago?
Mr. Rush:	She's been here for about... about 15 years.
Ms. Brand:	15 years? But Jim...
Mr. Rush:	Uh-huh. But this was before she was living here.
Ms. Brand:	Oh, she came to visit.
Mr. Rush:	She was just visiting, you know.
Ms. Brand:	Oh. Yeah Jim Crow really... really affected people's lives.
Mr. Rush:	It did.
Ms. Brand:	In every way.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, Jim Crow. Jim Crowed bus stations, Jim Crowed everything, you know.
Ms. Brand:	Yeah.
Mr. Rush:	But I don't know what was supposed to happen at that time, but-I don't know what they were expecting the black folk was going to do. Or maybe some were upset they might turn black like them, I reckon was what they were thinking...
	(Mrs. Rush, Mr. Rush & Ms. Brand laugh)
Mr. Rush:	I don't know what it was. I don't know to save my life, but you know but this... one little thing that was brought up in the world, I reckon.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mrs. Rush:	But you were Jim Crowed, but yet and still they would have a black person working for them.
Ms. Brand:	Right.
Mr. Rush:	Cooking their food, you know.
Mrs. Rush:	Cooking their food and things.
Mr. Rush:	Taking care of their children.
Mrs. Rush:	Taking care of their kids, doing cleaning and different things... but yet and still you wasn't allowed to live with them during that time.
Ms. Brand:	Hm.
Mr. Rush:	Well, what time is it? I have to go back to work. (laughs)
Ms. Brand:	You have to get back to work.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, I'm working on this building down the road, I'm supposed to put some drywall for my granddaughter, so...
Ms. Brand:	Oh, ok. Did you want to take pictures of the farm tools you were saying? Or we could do it-if you have to get back to work, we can set up a different time or... Because I was able to get a camera for this time.
Mr. Rush:	Yeah, I'll bring that thing to you. I'll come down here in the shed with you.
Ms. Brand:	Oh! It's-it's something you can carry?
Mr. Rush:	Uh-huh.
Ms. Brand:	I can come down with you. I don't mind.
Mr. Rush:	I don't mind, if you want to. That would be ok.
Ms. Brand:	It would be nicer in the 'natural setting.'
Mr. Rush :	Yeah.
Ms. Brand:	I can also take a portrait of you all, if you want.
Mr. Rush:	We can get that next time.
Ms. Brand:	Ok, that's fine. But yeah... it's a digital camera. It's neat because you get to see all the pictures right when you take them.
Mr. Rush:	Oh yeah?
Mrs. Rush:	Hm.
Ms. Brand:	You don't have to wait to get it developed.
Mr. Rush:	That sounds good.
Ms. Brand:	Only if you have time.
Mr. Rush:	It's in the shed right there, that's where it's at. That little building right there.
Ms. Brand:	Alright.
	tape cuts off; end of interview
Copyright Information: Virginia Center for Digital History, University of Virginia This interview is publically accessible Text and images © copyright 2001 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia.

Interview of Agnes Louise Rush on May 2, 2002, by Mieka Brand of the Race and Place Project. (Oral History)