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Priscilla Bates Oral History
Transcript
INTERVIEW WITH
PRISCILLA BATES
May 30, 2011 – Teresa Switzer, Interviewer
TERESA: Hello my name is Teresa Switzer and today is May 30, 2011 and I am located at Angela Bates’ residence in Bogue, Kansas. I am here to conduct an interview with Priscilla Jeanetta Bates. Then I am going to ask what is your full name and please spell it out as well.
PRISCILLA: Priscilla Jeanetta Bates P-R-I-S-C-I-L-L-A -J-E-A-N-E-T-T-A B-A-T-E-S.
TERESA: Thank you. And what is your age and your birth date and where you born?
PRISCILLA: I was born in Hays, Kansas, December 7, 1955, my age is 55.
TERESA: Thank you. Are you married, divorced, single?
PRISCILLA: Divorced.
TERESA: Thank you. What was your spouses’ name?
PRISCILLA: Troy Phillips Green.
TERESA: And when were you married?
PRISCILLA: Oh God August 10, no, August 5, 197. . . 1976 or somewhere around there.
TERESA: And where?
PRISCILLA: Pasadena, California.
TERESA: Okay, and do you have any children?
PRISCILLA: No children, no.
TERESA: Thank you. Who were your parents?
PRISCILLA: James and Charlesetta Bates.
TERESA: And did they grow up in Nicodemus?
PRISCILLA: Yes they were born and raised in Nicodemus.
TERESA: And what are your siblings’ names ages, starting with the oldest?
PRISCILLA: James Bates, 63; deceased is my oldest sister, Pauline Jackson, she would have been 62 if she was still living. Then Clint Bates, a deceased brother, he would have been 61 or 62 and Cheryl K. Jones, she is 59, and Angela is 57, yeah h 57 Angela Bates, and then myself.
TERESA: Do you know who your grandparents are on both sides of your family?
PRISCILLA: Pearl Bates was my father’s father, his mother was Vercilla Napue Bates. My mother’s side Elizabeth Risby. My grandfather was Charlie or Charles Williams.
TERESA: And were they from Nicodemus?
PRISCILLA: Yes they were.
TERESA: Where did you grow up and where did you attend school?
PRISCILLA: I grew up in southern California. I attended school in Pasadena, California.
TERESA: What was school like for you?
PRISCILLA: It was nice, it was okay and every summer we came home to Nicodemus. We never spent a summer in California.
TERESA: What did you like about school where you attended?
PRISCILLA: I guess really it was just hanging out with my friends and the education part of it. Typical teenager stuff.
TERESA: Do you have memorable events or stories?
PRISCILLA: From school? Only grade school. When we used to, about six of my girlfriends that I am still close with, we used to walk together and we would read make up stories on the way to school. I used to tell them I am going to be a writer one day. (Laughing)
TERESA: When did you come to Nicodemus?
PRISCILLA: I’ve always came to Nicodemus as a child. As an adult I have always came home every yeah r for our Homecoming Celebration. And then I finally moved to Wichita, Kansas which is about three hours away so that I could be closer to my parents as they were getting older.
TERESA: So before you moved to Wichita, do you remember any other time coming to Nicodemus outside the Homecoming?
PRISCILLA: Funerals, family funerals. Uh and just my summer vacation as a child into my teen yeah rs.
TERESA: What do you remember most as a child about coming to Homecoming?
PRISCILLA: Just having fun to have the freedom to run up and down the roads, the streets and eat, basically. Enjoy my cousins and stuff. The parties, the dance, the celebration itself around that time in July. Just the peace and quiet.
TERESA: What do you remember about preparing to come to Nicodemus? Like you were getting . . .
PRISCILLA: As a child?
TERESA: Hm, getting ready to take a trip. . .
PRISCILLA: Oh yeah I used to love it seems like the last day of school the next day we were heading, packing up the car, momma frying up chicken and baking cookies, getting some fruit together , some sodas, some water and we would load up the station wagon and she had made us a new little outfit to wear and it was just fun traveling from California to Nicodemus, we enjoyed it. It was just fun.
TERESA: Okay, how did you travel?
PRISCILLA: By car.
TERESA: And what type of car?
PRISCILLA: Station wagon, a Chevy. It was like a light metallic blue, bluish green station wagon. No it was a Ford station wagon, we had that wood panels on the side of it, it was kind of pale green, until it finally did its thing and then they got the Chevy. Oh yeah, those were the days. I remember we used to sit on the fruit, going through the inspection stand, Momma was a diabetic, so that they wouldn’t take her oranges and stuff. I used to sit on the fruit as a child coming through, so when they searched the car you know they didn’t see the fruit and stuff at the inspection stands.
TERESA: So what route did you usually take from southern California area?
PRISCILLA: Route 66!
TERESA: When you came to Nicodemus where and with whom did you usually stay?
PRISCILLA: My uncle and aunt out on their farm, Uncle Harry and Aunt Bernice.
TERESA: The Bates?
PRISCILLA: Uh huh.
TERESA: Okay. Uh how did you view yourself and your family in comparison to those who grew up in Nicodemus?
PRISCILLA: Everybody was family. I mean everybody was on one level, no one family was better than the other. We all got along and just fellowship together as the family should as we do to this day.
TERESA: Did you ever miss any Homecomings?
PRISCILLA: Yeah, I missed, when I turned 18 I said I am not going no more, it is time for me to stay in California and go to the beaches, hang out with my friends. So I say out of my entire life I probably have missed three. I would say three out of my entire life from child to adulthood.
TERESA: Now what do you remember about the dances during Homecoming? Remember when they were bands versus DJ’s and more memorable stories that either of the two forms of entertainment that were provided?
PRISCILLA: I remember the dances in the hall and seeing our parents dance and it was live bands and I remember how they used to have the breaks and all of the kids would be sitting down on the chairs and every now and then we would get up and dance with our parents and it was just a big happy fellowship type party it was never no fussin’ or arguing all the time or fighting it was just everyone enjoying themselves. I just remember as a child sitting in the hall looking over there at cousins and stuff and talking and we tried to do the latest dances and we would get up on the floor and it was just a lot of fun. Lot of fun as a child because we got to stay up late.
TERESA: Uh, do you remember anything about the food and/or the vendors?
PRISCILLA: Back as a child there weren’t any vendors hardly. It was more or less everybody cooked and everybody went over whoever’s food was there everybody shared and we ate. It wasn’t none of this thing with the vendors buying clothes, more commercialized now than it was back then. It was just like a big picnic, like they had like the stories were always told about the Homecoming. As a child how our parents would tell us stories about what they used to do and how everybody brought food down and everybody shared the food, that’s what I remember the most as a child. It was all the food we used to have sitting down on the tables.
TERESA: And what do you remember about the fashion talent show? Did you ever participate? And if you did what do you remember wearing?
PRISCILLA: As I got older they started introducing the fashion show. I did participate one yeah r I think I wore, I think I modeled one year lingerie, I think that was the year I did lingerie. I bought all types of lingerie down and capitans and things like that and modeled in the fashion show one yeah r. But it was always a nice event because it was a chance to see your cousins showing what they wear where they live and then uh, it was just nice. It was just a nice event to see, to have a fashion show. To the different types of outfits people wore.
TERESA: Now were you ever in the parade? And if you were when and doing what?
PRISCILLA: No I was never in the parade.
TERESA: Do you have any favorite cousins or ones that you hung out with and who were they and how were they related to you?
PRISCILLA: Let’ see well you are one Teresa! Teresa, Johnella Holmes, Robert Alexander, we called him Homer, uh, we all used to run together. We could go with _______’s, Angela, Vickie and all them when they all home. We got kicked to the curb so us three I was trying to think who was the fourth one that was with us. We used to hang as child. I know it was Johnella, you, Robert and there was somebody else. But anyway we used to hang out together. That’s why we looked forward to coming home and seeing each other, what you have been doing? How you been doing? Hey we always wanted to hang with the older crowd but they always told us, they always kicked us to the curb and now you all can’t be on the horse, you all can’t do this, now you all ought to be going home. Now that you can’t go up to and _______________ matches down, do you remember that? How we used to want to go to get in the car with them when to Heartland Matches (???), they wouldn’t let us go. We were right in the mix. (Laughing) How times change!
TERESA: Did you ever attend the Graham County Fair at the Homecoming and when and what did you think of the Fair relationship to Nicodemus Homecoming?
PRISCILLA: Yeah, I went to the fair while we were here. Uh, it was fun, because it was going on the same time as Nicodemus so it gave us things when we didn’t want to do things at our home town, it gave us things to go up and see that they were doing for a little bit, then we would come on back home. It was okay but sometimes it was to me like it purposely done around that time to stop people from coming down to our celebration.
TERESA: And what do you like most our Homecoming?
PRISCILLA: Family, visiting my family and cousins that I hadn’t seen in years.
TERESA: Now what church affiliation are you? And what activities are you involved in?
PRISCILLA: My church is Calvary Baptist Church at Wichita, Kansas. I am an usher. I am also president of our friendship league ministry and I help other auxiliaries we have within the church, business and professional women ministry. I am in part of that. I sing in a choir.
TERESA: Uh, how about some of the skills that you either learned from your parents or other family members for example, did you learn how to quilt, who did you learn it from, or sew, ride horses, cook, any of those things?
PRISCILLA: As far as horses go I love them, but I never could really down here in Nicodemus ride them, but quilting came from my mother and my great grandmother. My great grandmother used to make all of her quilts by hand and when I was in California we used to go over to my grandmother’s house every Sunday so Great Grandma would always be working on the quilt or had one in the process or watching her work on quilts and then my mother showing us how to do quilts.
TERESA: And which great grandmother is this?
PRISCILLA: This is my father’s grandmother. Maude Napue. My father’s grandmother. And she used to make them and then my mother herself made quilts, Charlesetta Bates made quilts and would show us how to quilts and stuff. But my favorite times was when working me and Darlene Green. We used to be very close and she used to do a lot of farming and stuff on her uncle’s farm so to learn how to drive a stick shift that is where I learned on a tractor where I had to shift gears and I will never forget one summer we were out there in the field tending the field on that old tractor it was blue, I will never forget it was a blue based color tractor and then it didn’t have a canopy or anything on it so we was out in the sun going around this field tilling the dirt up and yep that is where I learned how to drive a stick shift. Between that one and Uncle Harry’s tractor had a stick shift on it. His was red! (laughing)
TERESA: What relative if there is one had an impact or major influence on your life?
PRISCILLA: Relative? Uh, had an impact on my life why . . . I could really say I would have to say there is two, Ernestine VanDuvall, married to Phil VanDuvall would be one because she was when she was in California she was the type of woman to always think ahead of or think outside the box of what she could do to make money. She had her own barbecue shop and I can remember I was the very first one to work for her because I used to go to her house and put the little napkins, forks and spoons, salt and peppers in the little bags and then ride with her and sit on the money bag while she delivered the dinners to the various places in Pasadena. Her strong will and determination I would say is still to me to be the workaholic at times I can be. Always striving to get ahead, do things, put money back to as well and then the other one I would say is would be my mother her strong independent wisdom in telling me I make sure you always have something for a rainy day, show me what I need to do as far as growing up being a woman, and uh, those two people that influenced my life a lot.
TERESA: Are there places in the town or township that have special meaning to you and if they are, where and why?
PRISCILLA: Township? Well I did like the Priscilla Arts Club building, because it was after my name. I always said, I used to tell my girlfriends about it at the time you know I have a hall named after me as I was growing up, but I guess that and the hall in the fact that so many hands built that hall. My grandfather and his brothers and other cousins and them all built that hall that we celebrate in each yeah r. I guess those two buildings that stand out to me the most.
TERESA: Do you remember any stories about relatives or other people in the Nicodemus community mainly related to either farming, hunting or fishing, school?
PRISCILLA: I know there were several families which were relatives that did farming, the Alexanders, the Switzers, uh, my Uncle, you called him the little leprechaun, (laughing) I used to call him the little leprechaun, Uncle Alvin. I mean they were several families, yeah, I used to call him that, that used to farm and I thought that was so neat to see and to know that I had family that was raising wheat, growing wheat and corn and being sold either for grain or for purposes of eating. That was so neat to know and then Uncle Donald, he did his own slaughtering. I remember that back then, his pigs and curing his own meat and then the cattle. They milked the cows and some of them made their own butter. That was just fascinating to me as a child and as a teenager coming to Nicodemus to see that.
TERESA: Are there any particular relatives you stay in contact with on a regular basis?
PRISCILLA: Really the only ones I could say growing up were the Sayers and the Paytons. Uh, those were the two families that are descendants of Nicodemus that while we were in California we were always over at their house on weekends with the parents were playing cards, drinking and talking and us kids were going out doing things together. We had picnics out there together. I would say that there was times that we tailgated from California to Nicodemus all three cars, three families coming home for Homecoming. That was the two families the most that we kept up and growing up with, since they were in California too.
TERESA: Do you have an opportunity to mentor any younger generation relatives, and can you give me a couple examples and why?
PRISCILLA: I haven’t really had the opportunity to mentor any of my cousins or great nieces or nephews. Uh we have talked and when I see and they have asked questions about Nicodemus I have given them answers about it, telling them that this is your grandmother on this side or this is your mom’s relatives on this side, as far as that goes, but as far as mentoring no. I never really mentored any my nieces or nephews or great nieces or nephews.
TERESA: Okay and the next few questions are mainly about what you see for the future for Nicodemus and what do you think it is important for the next generation and descendants to know about Nicodemus and the people of Nicodemus?
PRISCILLA: Well we are going to have to establish something, we are going to have establish something here for it to continue to make it grow. As we were discussing, a general store, or food services place where products could be sold. Something to where they will take an interest to want to come back or come down, and those that live there to take a part in it. And even for us that don’t live here that come home every now and then it would be something that we could continue to support and send money to continue to make it grow. But there is going to have to be something within Nicodemus to attract the younger generation because with it being like it is now no, as soon as they are out of college they are gone to the bigger cities. There is going to have to be something here to where it could attract them, where they could start their own business, it is going to have to be something of that scale to keep them here.
TERESA: And what does it mean to you to be a descendant and furthermore what does Nicodemus mean to you?
PRISCILLA: Nicodemus is home. I mean I can always lay my head somewhere in Nicodemus even though my parents have a homestead here I have a home. Uh if it comes to the point where I have no choice but to come and live in Nicodemus I will always have a place whether it be on the homestead or with family. Nicodemus to me is very, I am very proud of Nicodemus; even though it is going through changes and a lot of the relatives are dying off it is still home. We still have a rich history here and our ancestors struggle and survived here and then you look at our parents who have struggled and survived here. What is there not to appreciate about Nicodemus? I mean we have rich history. I have every opportunity, I take every opportunity, I should say, when I am back in Wichita to talk about Nicodemus and its history to different people, white people, uh, I let them know that you know that this is the only black surviving town left west of the Mississippi, you know, and I tell them about the history of Nicodemus and encourage them to take a road trip to come up here and see it. You know it is amazing and when I tell my girls because two of them have come down here to see it. They say it’s unbelievable when they just, God you don’t hear anything at night, but you can see the stars, and it is peace and quiet and fresh air, it is just so much. Nicodemus is a place that will always be it is the promised land, it is home.
TERESA: And now this question kind of goes back to what you had already said but what is your biggest concern about the future of Nicodemus?
PRISCILLA: It is not prospering or not growing. I can see where older elders are getting sick and they are passing on and soon it is going to be a little ghost town and what I mean by that the ones that are here that are my generation or my sister’s generation there is only far and few and I can see it being desolate for a little bit, but only until we start make things happen, start to put projects in place, buildings in place, something that is going to attract and keep the ones that are here uh, it is going to be a little desolate for a little while, yeah I can see that, but it will still be home.
TERESA: Right. What do you think the value of this oral history project is and what would you like to tell the next generation or descendants that are being born today?
PRISCILLA: This project because I have several other interviews before, never really seen any results from them. I don’t know if anything was ever done with it, but I would like to see this information published, put in the anthropology. Uh sitting in the library of congress, sitting in school libraries somewhere this data that they collect. This information is I like to see it being published, something done with it instead of it just being collected and put in a folder on the shelf, I would like to see something more of it to come more of it. Uh, what is the other half of your question?
TERESA: Uh what would you like to tell the next generation?
PRISCILLA: The next generation? Remember this is home and you always take care of home first no matter where you are at, make sure you come home, you take care of those that are here, check on those that are here, you don’t sell yourself, don’t sell anything here, it is all in the family and needs to remain in the family just keep doing what you got to do until you can come home and appreciate it.
TERESA: Is there any other comments you would like to make?
PRISCILLA: I think that when I see Nicodemus I see our ancestors. I see them looking down on us saying okay you all better get it together now, let’s get it together. Because when I think of the stories they had back then, the general store, the post office, the hotel, all the different businesses that are striving back then there is no reason why we can’t have a same thing again. There is no excuse for it.
TERESA: Thank you so much Priscilla. It has been wonderful talking to you and thank you for your time and effort for providing this interview for us.
PRISCILLA: You are welcome.
Description
Oral History Interview with Priscilla Bates from 2011.
Credit
Teresa Switzer Interviewer
Date Created
05/30/2011
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