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Naomi Winkelman 0:00
Elizabeth Hamilton on November 20 2003. All right, Mrs. Hamilton, you tell me a little bit about where you

were born and when you were born.

Elizabeth Hamilton 0:09
I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December the 2nd, 1930. when he was there and went away to college and

from there went elsewhere. So I haven't been back to Pittsburgh, right. Since graduating from high school.

Naomi Winkelman 0:28
So we went to college in Pittsburgh,

Elizabeth Hamilton 0:30
I went toPennsylvania, Penn State in State College, Pennsylvania.

Naomi Winkelman 0:35
What degrees did you learn?

Elizabeth Hamilton 0:37
That was in foods and nutrition. From there, I went to Iowa. I went all went to Ohio State, first to Columbus,

Ohio and did a master's degree in dietetics. And then from there, I'm, well then I got married and moved to

Iowa for a short time was one my husband was in, and get his graduate work in physical therapy. From there, we

moved to Youngstown. And we stayed in Youngstown, Ohio for eight years. And then we moved to Chapel Hill. We

were in Chapel Hill for five years, and then moved to Greenville in 69.

Naomi Winkelman 1:20
So why did guys do so much moving around.

Elizabeth Hamilton 1:23
Mostly from schoolwork and that type of thing. I did an internship at Ohio State and graduate degree in Ohio

state, Ohio State. And then from there we went. That's my husband was in the Korean War. And then we went to

Iowa, and he finished his degree, but we both graduated from Penn State. That's where I met him.

Naomi Winkelman 1:48
Oh, can you tell me about a little bit about what your parents did.

Elizabeth Hamilton 1:51
My father was an accountant with US Steel in Pittsburgh. He did that all his life until he retired. And my

mother worked some that it was his home a lot that she worked some as a furrier in Pittsburgh,

Naomi Winkelman 2:12
What's a furrier?

Elizabeth Hamilton 2:15
making coats and hats and coats and things out of furs. Okay. She knew her furs.

Naomi Winkelman 2:24
So what was it like growing up in Pittsburgh?

Elizabeth Hamilton 2:27
Oh, big city. And we were in a neighborhood where there were lots of kids our age. We played a lot outside,

games outside. was mostly you grew up in that neighborhood. You went to a neighborhood school, all through

eighth grade at one school and that school is still operating today. It's all brick school, but it's still

going strong. And then from there, we went to the high school for ninth grade through 12th grade. And high

school still operating. They don't get rid of their schools, they hang on to them.

Naomi Winkelman 3:15
Were you involved in a lot of activities in school, high school.

Elizabeth Hamilton 3:20
I guess yes. You know, high school. But I don't know what was weekends and stuff. We had a summer home in

Ashtabula, Ohio. So we did a lot of weekends. Taking off from Pittsburgh going to Ashtabula. We have that turf

from the time I was eight years old until after I was at Penn State. Dad finally decided you better sell that

you couldn't keep it up.

Naomi Winkelman 3:52
How do you think the neighborhood you grew up in this kind of differently different and similar to Lakewood

pines?

Elizabeth Hamilton 3:58
Well, the neighborhood was a very close knit neighborhood, all the kids play together. We did a lot of outside

playing, you know. And then when bad weather wasn't great, you play in the houses and we played with your

friends and went from one place to another so that you one house to another to play. We didn't have most

everyone. There was no daycares and all that kind of thing that they have now. And most of the mothers were at

home, home stay at home moms. That the neighborhood itself you knew the kids on your street unit the kids on

the street behind you in the street. You know, in the wintertime, everybody was out, sled riding together,

play together in large groups of kids. You went to grade school with the same kids you went to high school

with the same kids that were your neighborhood. So there was much closer knit group of people than there are

now, everyone is transmit now.

Naomi Winkelman 4:57
So as far as kids growing up here, did your children?

Elizabeth Hamilton 5:00
my my children grew up. Most I would say they grew up here in this neighborhood. We moved here and my oldest

son was the first one first class to go into AG. No EBA COC was a brand new school when he when we moved here.

So he was a student there. And he played with some of the kids in the neighborhood, but by then they, you

know, they had their own friends man at school because you had different neighborhoods. And there wasn't any

one was one other one other neighbor that precedes that. And the other children then sort of grew up in this

neighborhood. My daughter grew up here. She was a baby. She grew up here she went, and we moved into this

neighborhood. We went to South Greenville. And I think they're still going to South Greenville elementary

school. They play with the kids in the neighborhood. But they didn't sit and watch television all day long.

Like they do now.

Naomi Winkelman 6:01
All right, um, can you tell me a little bit about what your husband does?

Elizabeth Hamilton 6:04
He's a physical therapist. And we came to Greenville. He started his school physical therapy at ECU. He was a

chairman of Department of Physical Therapy at ECU. So we he started the department and he was chairman for a

good number of years. And then he finally was teaching gave up chairmanship and was teaching and he's still

doing physical therapy on the side. Teaching here, teaching and doing

Naomi Winkelman 6:38
How about your career. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Elizabeth Hamilton 6:40
I'm a consultant dietitian. And I have retired so I'm not doing it anymore. And this is the first year that we

have a retired registered dietitian status. So I have joined that. And but I'm a registered dietician, member

of American Dietetic Association, member of the North Carolina Dietetic Association and very active in that

area, eastern district and state association. have not done anything on the national level.

Naomi Winkelman 7:14
Sounds like a lot though.

Elizabeth Hamilton 7:16
But I've been a consultant dietitian. Mainly because it was easier to do that and be home when the kids needed

you at home resource set your own schedule. I work with nursing homes, small hospitals, in about a 55 mile

radius from Greenville. When I was here, we move after we moved here. I did it in Chapel Hill, too, but had

been doing that.

Naomi Winkelman 7:41
What else does that involve? Being a dietitian? What do you do with nursing homes?

Elizabeth Hamilton 7:48
Well, they they require someone to go in and help them with their modified diets that they're having, looking

at their menus and making sure that their menus are nutritionally adequate, and that they're preparing the

food, right. And I did a lot of in service teaching and cuando and teaching of the employees in the

departments to try to keep them updated on ways new ways of doing things and keep them I always told them,

they were professionals and what they were doing. The cooks and everyone need to know about these special

diets and what they can give them what they can make substitutes for so that the people are getting what they

should have in the nursing homes in the small hospitals that can't afford to have a dietitian, registered

dietician on their staff all the time. So I would just go into like, weekly or monthly so many times a month

basis. A lot of one on one teaching. Um, I talk with patients about what they shouldn't so that they would

have choices

Naomi Winkelman 8:54
What do you like about Lakewood pines? What do you think the good qualities are in this neighborhood?

Elizabeth Hamilton 9:01
We moved here. It was It's quiet. It's not you know, you're not one white house right up on top the other and

yet everybody is very friendly. If you walk around the neighborhood, people will talk to you. We have get

togethers that we tried. We've tried to I think the neighborhood used to have a when we first moved had a

garden club that was very, very active. And they did a lot for the neighborhood. And so we're keeping the

neighborhood group together. That I was never able to join to be an active member of that because I was

working and they would get together during the daytime. So I was never really active in that but they would

have your garden sales and bake sales and do all kinds of things like that, which I think brought the

neighborhood together. And they still we don't have the garden club anymore, but we have very active, group of

people that are right now in right in City Hall. You know, hopefully that'll work. Hopefully they'll the

workout workout. But they already get it a whole neighborhood is together on this, this project and they are

members of the neighborhood coalition. And I think that's what people are going to have to do. Because you

cannot do things by yourself, you've got there at least, you don't feel quite as fun when you when they don't

listen to you. They don't listen to one person. And lately, they haven't been listening to whole groups,

people. So I don't know what's gonna happen.

Naomi Winkelman 10:41
Would you like to talk a little bit about the current conflict with the apartment complex.

Elizabeth Hamilton 10:46
Well, as you can see, in here, we have a really nice we moved here because it was, it was, you know, the kids

used to play down in the back when they were younger. And they would come here kids would come here and play

because it was an open yard, so to speak. We first moved here, our neighbors on the other side pains had

horses that they just had a little fence around and had their horses down here. Right when we bought the house

so that that has changed and the water level. We didn't have the Creek State down my one son lived in the

creek, as long as it was decent weather he was in the creek playing with the fish, and he would be we would

catch the fish and put them in aquariums and he was always me on catching frogs and bringing snakes around. We

had quite a few pets that are possums and we had a one raccoon that was on a possum and my older son had a

groundhog that was gonna keep that very long. But that wilderness in the quietness of the neighborhood, even

though we have a train that runs through there, you know, but that's sort of nice to hear the whistle blowing

every once in a while. But I think that was part of why we bought here because it was in the city, but it was

in the country. And things, you know that nothing stays the same. But we just hate to see that Wilderness Park

going in and high rises, which are are not good. The high rises in apartment complexes right next to single

residents are not good. I mean, these people are gone. They come and they go, they come and they go. And the

people in this neighborhood and other neighborhoods have come in they stay until their job changes and they

move away or something like that.

Naomi Winkelman 12:49
Is there anything you would like to change about Lakewood pines?

Elizabeth Hamilton 12:52
Oh, not really. I don't think so. And we love it here we, we just hate to think about going someplace else.

And we have a lot of room. And most of the houses are different. There's there's no two houses that are the

same. And they're all different houses so that it's not, you know, you can have a different variety all the

way around. When you drive up and down the streets and people walk around the street. Christmas Eve, they'll

have bags, lights, and one of our neighbors used to collect the money from everybody and go and get bags with

the lights. And there were quite a few people. You know, once in a while every people that didn't join in with

them. Most of the time, you could ride around the neighborhood, all the lights were on, you could walk around

the neighborhood. And a lot of people walk around this neighborhood during the day, evenings and so forth.

Naomi Winkelman 13:55
Tell me maybe the experience of women in the neighborhood you've noticed from the early 19 Well from the 1970s

Until now, kind of different types of women in the neighborhood

Elizabeth Hamilton 14:08
No, I'm not sure exactly what you mean different types of

Naomi Winkelman 14:14
Was there a lot of people or was there a lot of women working when you first moved here with different jobs?

Elizabeth Hamilton 14:19
No, there were you know, there was a lot of I guess a number of people were Dupont, DuPont people that were in

this neighborhood sort of quite a few people from DuPont. And they have gradually you know, either died and

moved away or something like that. But I think a lot of the mothers were stay at home moms. And I was working.

You know when I first moved here was working but thinking of my neighbors, most of them were most of them were

around so that It was just a, it's just a nice neighborhood and everybody would talk to everybody. You know,

we're not that you knew exactly what everyone was doing, but at least. You knew they were there. And I think

that's the other thing and friendly friendliness to the neighborhood. I mean, if you need something you feel

like you can, you know, somebody's going to volunteer, so that it's just a good neighborhood

Naomi Winkelman 15:31
How would you say this neighborhood has changed since you moved here?

Elizabeth Hamilton 15:34
I don't know that. It's changed that much at that for a while. All and yet no, it was a neighborhood. That was

a lot of children. And then the children grew up and had moved away. But the parents were still here. And the

parents are still here. And then they're there. I'm Oh, it's it ready? Yeah. Okay. We were talking about the

parents, Darrell being here. Some of the children who had grown up and moved away, come back by house and

they're here. So that we're, we've got some of those folks back again, into the same neighborhood. One of the

couples had moved away, and they're, they've come back to that they liked the neighborhood. So they come back

and come back to ringley. Come back to the neighborhood. A lot of the younger people that have moved in, in

some of the houses were, people have moved away, younger couples have moved in. So we have another whole crop

of little kids coming up again, so it's changed in the people have grown and kids have grown up, moved away.

And the parents have stayed here and have passed away or moved away. And now younger people are moving back in

with little kids. And hopefully they'll grow up here and recycle that way.

Naomi Winkelman 16:59
I know that the stores on Arlington here were just built or built sometime after you guys moved here. Yes. So

where did you used to shop before? If you even grocery shop there now where do you do your grocery shopping

and all that?

Elizabeth Hamilton 17:15
Well, you know, now we have Kroger's is is there, which was new that was a union carbide plant when we first

moved here. And we hated to see that change and put, you know, that Plaza up there, but we couldn't do

anything about that. And they have not done a very good job of water runoff there. And all that company is

that that owns it. They have they're holding ponds, but they're holding ponds are dry holding ponds, they do

not collect water, they do not hold water at all. And all that water rushes down and comes down. And beside

the house, it's all around beside the house and has stood up, which it runs over into the backyards before

even reknown on does. And the highway was a two lane highway, Evans Street. And it's now you know, four lanes

plus attorney nine. So it's a five lane highway on the main street. So that's changed. But we don't hear that

traffic, you know, when you get used to it. There's more houses that have been built up on there since we came

that little strip Plaza there was built, overturn, this was built and all those things, but we used to, you

know, I guess the plaza and Caroline, Caroline East Mall while they were we went shopping more than anything

else for clothing and things. And it was the grocery stores that were close. We still have growth have close

grocery stores.

Naomi Winkelman 18:48
How do you get to know your neighbors when you move into this neighborhood? Is there some kind of

socialization process?

Elizabeth Hamilton 18:54
Well, we the neighborhood has a we have a Christmas get together. We send fliers around to all the neighbors

and say we're having a Christmas get together. Regarding one of the neighbors had been doing this for years

and having it in their home. And they would furnish the drinks and everybody would take a dish and you had a

Christmas party and neighbors would come and you got to see him if you didn't see them. But once a year at

least you got to meet the new neighbors. We're still doing that that family moved away. And one of the other

families took over then we told the neighbor when they moved in and bought the house that they were supposed

to have a Christmas party but they didn't take us up on it. So another neighbor has volunteered their house

again last year and again this year, so we will be having our annual get together. Of course we've been doing

a whole lot more with the neighbors get togethers with the neighbors right now with letters and email and you

know concerning the apartment complex and so forth, but we've always had sort of get togethers, not routine in

the fall and have a cookout or something when we first moved here, and then you sort of get away from it, but

you still know your neighbors. And there was there's the women had a bridge club, neighborhood bridge club. We

used to get together for that we still do. Not as many of us still have a bridge club.

Naomi Winkelman 20:27
How often does that meet the bridge club?

Elizabeth Hamilton 20:29
Twice a month? Meet the second and fourth Tuesday mornings?

Naomi Winkelman 20:37
Has there been any other conflicts like this before with the apartment complex building? Is there ever been

anything

Elizabeth Hamilton 20:42
there was another there was a lot one empty lot. And someone wanted to cut through from off of Hooker, there's

an apartment, there's apartments or buildings over in there. And they wanted to cut through to avoid use that

and use it as a road and put a road through there across the railroad tracks and through. And we fought that

somebody else bought a lot and put a house on it. So we didn't have any more vacant lots. That was another

thing that all one neighborhood got together and said, Hey, we don't want this to happen.

Naomi Winkelman 21:17
Was that when was that?

Elizabeth Hamilton 21:19
Gosh. I don't remember when that was maybe 10 years or more? Yeah.

Naomi Winkelman 21:35
Would you tell me a little bit about the neighborhood committee about the type of people that are on it?

Because Are there a lot of people involved with

Elizabeth Hamilton 21:42
you mean, the one that we have right now? The Coalition? Yeah, the neighborhood association. So yeah, we, in

order to have any club we really had to, we've always had a good neighborhood. Lakewood, Lakewood, pines,

Neighborhood Preservation something or other. And that was developed. But then this, you had to have on the

books, she had to have all this kind of paperwork that you had to go through now. So we have a regular

schedule, meeting we elect officers we have. They have meetings, there's a steering committee. For this, you

have your regular officers. And then there's a steering committee. And the steering committee is the committee

that's trying to keep track of what's going on. And go to the pnz meetings and go to the city council meetings

and have somebody in the neighborhood go. So their steering committee has been doing a lot of that type of

thing. And they had been very, very busy. And then we this is costing money, because when this book, this

thing went in over here and was passed, and they changed it and allowed four students per apartment rather

than having three bedroom apartments, family style apartment complexes, they change into student complexes, a

student complex who wanted to change it and had it. I mean, it went through we couldn't stop it. But that that

cost us you know, that's been what we've been sort of dealing with. But they've been we are now part of the

neighborhood coalition. And our neighborhood President attends to coalition meetings, which the neighborhood's

from all of the all of the neighborhood presidents are supposed to be working together to go take care of some

things that are

Naomi Winkelman 23:37
there other neighborhood coalition or,

Elizabeth Hamilton 23:40
well, the neighborhood coalition is, is a combination of different neighborhoods want to join this coalition.

And that is helping just give more people involved in what's going on. My husband attended the pnz meeting on

Tuesday night, just listening in. Because of the the PNZ mean a city council meeting, I'm sorry, the PNZ had

approved another place where they're putting an apartment complex, large apartment complexes instead right

next to single families. Well, the one neighborhood they didn't want, they didn't want they didn't want those

apartments next to them, another neighborhood across the street did not want them and next to them. And so you

know, both neighborhoods, nobody wanted them. There were five different groups there. That didn't neighborhood

groups showed up people from five different neighborhoods, saying we don't want it but City Council wouldn't

listen when they hadn't approved it. So it was accepted. And the builder is going to be able to build what he

wants to build when he wants to build it. Where are you wanting to go? You know, it's very frustrating because

it's, it's like, we elect these people thinking they're going tend to do what we want them to do. And they

don't. You know, there's other people telling them behind them or whatever, you just don't like that I think

the whole, the group as a whole can do more. And it's, it's, we hope in the future that you'll be able to do

things on it before things get too far. Right now, we would like to do more with this Greenway and horizon

plan that the city has. And I don't know that much. But my husband has been very much involved in trying to

see what the horizon plan is all about. And where we can have some input on what they do with water runoff.

Because that is a big thing in the whole city of green light water runoff. And we're going to flood again if

they don't do something.

Naomi Winkelman 25:56
Well, thank you, Mrs. Hamilton. Is there anything else you wanted to say?

Elizabeth Hamilton 26:00
No, I don't think so. We've got to get to have people working together. And then and other people. I mean, our

representatives should be listening to what goes on and what people want. And then reviewing all of this and

coming up with we have to go but what they say. So it's like if you listen enough, find out what the real

story is. And is it good for the community or is it not good for the community? I think that it comes down to

that might not be good for us directly. But if it's not good for us, it might not be good for the next door

neighbor either. So we're hoping that we can do something more to keep the wilderness area behind us and keep

the flooding down because that's I think the main thing is the flooding. water runoff from City of Greenville

is bad news. And we are a tributary the Greenville run is a tributary to the Tar River. So when the Tar River

rises, it backs up into the tributaries. And if it's you can't get out, then you've got problems.

Naomi Winkelman 27:10
Well, thank you very much.