Interview of Elizabeth Adams

Dublin Core

Title

Description

Elizabeth Adams is an elderly woman who offered stories of her early life and family photos to SUNY Geneseo’s organization “Heard @ Geneseo.” The oral interview was taken and transcribed by Jaclyn Connoly and Erica Sutton, and it was later revised by Jordan Keane.

Creator

Connoly, Jaclyn; Sutton, Erica

Date

2011-01-11

Contributor

Adams, Elizabeth; Keane, Jordan

Format

doc, 31.7

Type

Interview

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

ELIZABETH: Here, let me show you something! JACLYN: What’s that? [Rustling noise as Ms. Adams gets up to get a picture and shows it to us. It is an old photograph of the tavern by Byrne Dairy] ELIZABETH: It’s up there someplace. JACLYN: Is that the tavern on the corner by Byrne Dairy? ELIZABETH: Yeah! Look at it. JACLYN: The village tavern? [Elizabeth nods] JACLYN: There has been a lot of renovation. It’s amazing to see how much open land there was before. ELIZABETH: I gave them a copy of it. [Indicating she gave the current Village Tavern Restaurant owners a copy of the photograph to put in the establishment] This copy is mine. I gave them a copy of it. They don’t have it up, but they have it. JACLYN: Back then, what was it used for, do you know? ELIZABETH: It was a tavern. Yeah, I mean, I guess people stayed there. JACLYN: Was the drinking age when you were younger, 18 or was it 21? ELIZABETH: That was too old. [She laughs] I don’t know. I think it was 18. JACLYN: Was the tavern— ELIZABETH: We never went there. JACLYN: Do you know who took the photo? ELIZABETH: No. Wait, yes. I’ll show you who took the photos. Hang on. Here they are! [She comes back into the room with three photographs]. They took photos all over town. My aunt and her friends. There’s one where the Catholic Church parking lot is now. [She shows us a photograph of three young women in dresses and carrying parasols with a man. The group is standing on what appears to be a rocky path with grass on the side.] My great-great grandfather had the store downtown. JACLYN: The one with the ledger? [On the initial meeting with Elizabeth, she had shown us a ledger from the 1800s and told us a story about one of the customers. When the Big Tree Inn was being built, the Wadsworth had ordered pillars for its construction. However, when the pillars were made and delivered there was an issue with them so that Wadsworth didn’t want them. It may have been its size. The pillars then were attached to Ms. Adams’ family home and are still part of her family home today.] ELIZABETH: Yeah. JACLYN: Okay. ELIZABETH: [Too low to be caught, but she was beginning a thought and paused.] Isn’t that terrible? How could I forget? See, I’ve got problems. I’m getting too excited, and I can’t remember anything. I’m surprised I can remember my own name. Vance. Charles Vance. Charles Vance bought our property from James Wadsworth in 1831 or something like that. My great grandfather [a pause, then return] my great-great grandfather. JACLYN: The property for this house right? ELIZABETH: Yes. It went all the way up Prospect Street to the cemetery. [She takes her arms to show the length and makes a “swooshing” noise to demonstrate the vastness]. Okay? JACLYN: Okay. Who are the women in the photos? ELIZABETH: Oh, it’s my grandmother and a cousin and her sister. I mean, my grandmother and my aunt and a cousin Carl Doughty. They used to walk all around town taking pictures. One of them is at the homestead office. They’re sitting there. One was at a theatre, where the Catholic church parking lot is. Do you know where that is? Okay can you tell which one it is? JACLYN: The Catholic Church ELIZABETH: That’s the one. That was Emerald Hall. Emerald Hall [repeated for emphasis]. I think it says it on the back of the picture. JACLYN: [. . .] He said there was a desk in there that you took to school with you? ELIZABETH: Yeah, not me. My mother used to bring her own. Not me; when I went to school I went up here to the cobblestone school, for third grade. At that point, they had finished the practice school. Let’s see, after you go to the third grade up here, we went down to the old college on Main Street like I told you—on the side street. JACLYN: Yeah. ELIZABETH: You go past Wadsworth Street, you go down Bank Street, go down the other side, and there was an entrance to the school there, down there on the left hand side underneath the auditorium upstairs. Do you know where I’m talking about? JACLYN: Yes. ELIZABETH: Is that entrance still there on Main Street downstairs? JACLYN: I think it is. ELIZABETH: In the old building it would be right under the auditorium. JACLYN: I’ve been over there, so I think it is. ELIZABETH: Well that’s where we went in to school. Let’s see. I’m trying to remember, counting off grades, through the elementary school, which was a two story building, right there. JACLYN: Yes? ELIZABETH: Down on Court Street. JACLYN: Yes. ELIZABETH: Okay. JACLYN: Where did you go? You went to the cobblestone school for third grade? ELIZABETH: Right. JACLYN: Where did you go for your sophomore year? Down there? ELIZABETH: Right. [ . . .] We went to Kindergarten down underneath there. Miss Baker was a kindergarten teacher. I can’t remember the other one. There were two of them, but Miss Baker was one of the kindergarten teachers down there, the kindergarten underneath the school, well, underneath the stage, you know what I mean? JACLYN: Yes. ELIZABETH: Then we came up here for first, second, and third, and then we went back to the new school. JACLYN: For fourth through eighth? ELIZABETH: Yes. JACLYN: And then the high school was ninth through twelfth? ELIZABETH: Yes.