[This text is machine generated and may contain errors.]
Robert Little
Narrators
Heather White
Interviewer
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
East Carolina University
[This text is machine generated and may contain errors.]
Heather White (00:01)
Okay, today is Tuesday, December 27 2016. And what's your name?
Robert Little (00:06)
Robert Little L-I-T-T-L-E.
Heather White (00:08)
Is it okay that I'm interviewing you?
Robert Little (00:10)
Yes.
Heather White (00:10)
All right. So can you tell us about your connection to this area?
Robert Little (00:15)
Well, my connection to this area is I was born here raised here to the age of 16, 16, uh 16 or 15. I'll say 15 stay safe. Till like I said, Greenville's first re-development Program shot. You had move to [inaudible] Park. With you. You have first interest interest in [inaudible] Park, if you lived out yet, but unfortunately, my family was the very last family to leave. They had a dogs had gone while running in that they kept the house. My father wouldn't move. He finally did move we moved up on Third Street by the Third Street School, but it was it was something live and die. It was an experience or racism. Whatever, you know, festered down hera a lot. Because on the weekends, people that lived out in the rural area in the country work and farm and whatnot. They came to greenville to do the shopping. Our stores started at Second Street. Thou pious store clothing stores, bike part. All of that started out. And when the the African Americans finished their shopping, they came back here we had John. Yeah, right up here. would agree Evan? Evans family graveyard?
Oh, yeah, right here, right? Yeah.
Heather White (01:59)
Over here. Yeah.
Robert Little (02:00)
Okay. Right next to it was a jute jar called B webs. People used to buy the beer, drank the wine, had a little alleyway with a mountain of wine bottles. But it was life, you know, it was a good life those I never knew we were so damn cool. Because I always had like a pair of sneakers, pair shoes for church and school. Three pair of pants, three shirts. And a suit and i ate everyday. So I really didn't grasp that poverty thing. Yeah, but I grew up in poverty. But it was wonderful way to grow up because my mother my father made sure we had everything that we needed to survive. My father was a provider. And I tried to pat him on we ran after him even to this day.
Heather White (02:54)
What did your father do?
Robert Little (02:55)
He was he was the Iceman Colonia is company. They provide all the eyes for for for the city to drugstores. They shaved ice and everything. Where he made ice and cold, deliver cold during the winter. He had a rough job, he had to get up every morning at 5 o'clock to go to work. When I got up, he was gone that I needed some money in school back then before I left but that was life down here on the river. Back over here where the radio tower was right at the boatman, Mr. Moy Maurice is that we need to get that run that that gave all the land to the hospital. He owned all this all the yellow house. back then. He had OSHA house, Father work they met on the weekend. And it was pretty nice man. Very nice man. My mother worked for him domestically. You know cleaning the house cooking and whatnot. When she didn't do seasonal work.We grew up here during the summer. If you didn't want to get wet but one learn how to swim come down and river with a pair of shorts on as guarantee your brother with throw you in and you could only get out you had to learn how to swim out wouldn't have nobody tried to help you out. You were on your own. We learned and nobody never drowned that way. But the river did claim somebody every year. Every year Tar River will claim a victim. Sometimes it would be so deep you know you couldnt even go near it and sometmes you could walk all the way across cause it wouldnt be more than ankle deep
Heather White (04:57)
He had said earlier that liveing here that It was a village that raised the children. Oh, yeah.
Robert Little (05:03)
Yeah, you could get caught doing something wrong. One of the neighbors say, particularly they they're, you know, not taking me but say, Me per se. "Bobby, come here" "yes", pull the belt off, tear your ass up. And wait for your mom to get home or your daddy, I prefer my daddy to come home first. But my mama didn't know how to stop beating. From the neck down you belong to my mom. Anyway, thats how it was, they will get you know, to do a spanking. They didn't really hurt you wasn't abusive But you got a butt whooping then when your parents came home you got another butt beatingand it taught you a lot more respect. And to be a better person than what you want. It prevented you from straying to the left you know, straight to the left or too far you might not come back. So it keeps us in line which parents with with invisible parents, that's the current president but you know, the wheel was It was great. I have no complaints. I have a lot of great memories about it looks small now. But when I was a kid growing up it was a huge area. But now all the houses are gonethe land seems to shrinks. So yeah. displace river flood, it come back here. Yeah. We have playground now here. We play football down the bottom next to the river. The second level we baseball.
Third Level up top was you know, that whatever you want to play any kind of board game, and it was always something to do during the summer. That's kept us from doing things that we shouldn't be doing. Nine o'clock, you'd be down here, sweetie? You know Eleanor Hagen, died last summer. She ran the playground. She was like a mother. She raised anybody that you talked to this as a 70 or younger would tell you the same thing. She was part of your life
Heather White (07:42)
So I asked you about church earlier and you said that you didn't have any choice.
Robert Little (07:46)
I didn't have any choice but it got me where I am today with my my teachers and my belief in God. Because if I didn't, if I had I don't know if my faith will be as strong as it is today. It had a lot. Sycamore Hill had a lot we're going to do molding me as a person I am today because I love my Lord. And I get him all the praise each and every day. Like sometimes I wake up because without him I am nothing, give thanks, Sycamore Hill. Reverend Nemo Reverend Mosley and after that I don't know who as a kid Reverend Nemo was the first pastor. And he passed away and Reverend Mosley it became pastor. And I went right to highschool with reverend mosely because he was a substitute teacher for churches.
Heather White (08:56)
Seeing the photos is beautiful,
Robert Little (08:58)
It was stained glass nice pipe organ. The face was could have been which were landmark. It was a landmark because when you came from the north side cross the river thing you saw was this beautiful church. And I mean, we agree. Sitting there, it was beautiful.
Heather White (09:25)
I've heard a lot of people
Robert Little (09:26)
Who think that church was a white church and it wasn't oldest church and bring beautiful
Heather White (09:32)
Heard lots of people talk about the bells to be very tempting
Robert Little (09:46)
Church. You handed the church about right here got halfway between the two trees go into the sun this group had concrete floors but the basement was so cool though but it wasn't air condition that's why they might want to get this bounce through the during the summer they freed you in using the cool
Heather White (10:18)
That's wonderful. We just have appreciated everybody so many people have said the same some echoed the same things about how wonderful the community was.
Robert Little (10:26)
It was it was nice to have some of my my other friends are still living so just feel like that because we think that people call it a section downtown people that did that in this room as
Heather White (10:48)
Well. The ones we met today I would think that rings true. has been some of the best people Yeah, so you said that your family was the last one that the
Last one to arrive but the inverted last one to move out of here and actually I didn't know it for a minute you know most people just day by day each family would disappear then I realized I come home one night from up fifth st way No noise no nothing and all I could hear was those dogs was in his house growling they snarling and I got home and i said"mom no we don't want to definitely" she said yet and I got angry because I feel my father didn't want to move and it was embarrassed for me to go to school the next day because their kids want to pick at you know keys can be cruel but I didn't really get into that but a couple of our last one live now yeah live nine in the ghost town. So be it but we moved right away after that after I found out we were the last person.
I know that was had to be a hard transition.
Robert Little (12:14)
I was just glad to get now I didn't want to be hit by mischief. vandalism. Like I said, rancid racism white college kids is cos like that right at the end before they'd be at the road all the way through with Creek. So you had to go to second school route like Summit. And so when they made a new road through the new growth has come back college kids might not want no big rocks up on your porch got to be set up over here. The street level dinette was low because they've made new road Good thing I will not like I wasn't like I am being like because I probably wouldn't be here proud to be in jail thats another reason i thank godruin things to my mother if I ever get pinions on you got it. But that was the 60s hatred doesn't Thrive now like it did I can forgive this neighborhood has a lot of a lot of good and a lot of bad but the good outweighs the bad. You know hands down that come out this way but they're totally out waste. It was I can't come up with net wizard. That was real bad. That happened now here are incidents of the incidents that occurred nothing you could do about it. But as a whole great neighborhood. dozen people came up down that river on their boats but not kids that near throw rocks across the river. Boston she has tried to make him cry across but everybody was wondering got hospital how you doing Mr. So so we thought you know, it just seemed to be right most of the timenext year, there's good labor there.
Heather White (14:42)
We just appreciate you talking to us. We we just feel like it's so important to record the whole history and for people to be able to talk about well, we can definitely we hope that we can go back and talk more to people not out in the cold but we today want to make sure we go A short interview so we've if you'd like to talk to us again we'd love to set up another time maybe come talk to you but is there anything else before we
Robert Little (15:09)
No no. I'll be going back home with my child who he's clear from the military's
Heather White (15:23)
We appreciate it. Well, well, we'll stop this and then even though you didn't know we were gonna trap take your photo we'll see if you allowed us to take your photo.
