Peggy Scott
Transcript
Peggy S: Hoof.
Carlehr Swanson: [00:03] Okay, we are recording.
Peggy S: Okay. Okay.
Carlehr Swanson: [00:12] You can start with our first question.
Peggy S: Okay when and where I was born.
Peggy S: So I was born, of course, at the University of Virginia. But at the time I was born. My mom lived in en route 20 closer to Charlottesville. So that was the area that it was close to Keen, which is also close to Esmont. So in the middle kinda there between Charlottesville and King and that area that I lived in-I was gonna say, I think I don't even think there was a- I'm trying to think. I don't think that in the area that I was born, everybody around where we lived was Dwight.
[01:02] The children and the adults we engage with- Behind us, and and on either side of us and in front of us we're all white. So my grandmother bought some property out there on through 20 and it was considered Charlottesville. But it really was more in the rural area because we went to the rural schools went to Yancey school. So it was considered rural even though it was outskirts of Charlottesville.
As far as the family that I have in Esmont right now. Presently. Are my in-laws. All of my children are not in as much. Presently they've all, well, I have one son who lives in Skylar, but as far as my daughter and my other son, they both all 3 of them moved out, moved away. So as far as family in the community. Presently. It's my sister in laws and brother in laws that are presently residents there.
[02:09] And the way that we I ended up in Esmont was my mom. It was housing that got us there looking for a place that could house. My mom had 7 children and trying to find a place that could house 7 children. The Boldens, which is Carl's family that you guys are familiar with, had a house that was a 2 story that we use in Esmont that we, my mom, rent it. It was old house, not the greatest of old houses, but a good enough old house that had bedrooms enough for all of us, and a space for all of us, and a beautiful huge outside wooded area that you could use to play in hours and hours and hours spent out there. So that's why we got how we got the Esmont was the availability of housing.
Carlehr Swanson: [02:57] I have a follow up. What did your I'm sorry. What did your mom do?
Peggy S: My mom.
Carlehr Swanson: [03:01] Work.
Peggy S: My mom worked for a a— My mom did several jobs. She was a employee for united band lines where she did. It was a moving company where people moved to the area and they would pack them to leave or unpack them when they came and United Airlines was a moving company that, that she in, she worked for for many years.
It was pretty much it was a physical, pretty, intense labor. Role. She also did domestic work at her, in her latter years. For a lady she had a private family that she worked for, but the most the most I guess the most I remember we recall was her working for the airline company. And so she also, my mom was a single parent, because my father was not, you know, physically in the house. She was taking care of all of us with her income.
[03:58] And so when I say it's really good that we had community. It was really good. We had community cause everybody around we lived in on Route 20. My grandmother was there, so it was like a a family unit that everybody helped everybody. Her, her sister lived in a mobile home behind the house. So everybody helped everybody. The other sister lived over in Warren, she would come almost every day.
[04:23] So your children were fed by entire family. Your children were clothed by the entire family, so it wasn't just her making money. It was her being helped by her mother and her sisters. When we lived in Esmont we kind of stepped away from the family. So thank God for the community, because we had a lady up the street by the name of Miss Swan. She had eggs, and we would. My mom would buy eggs from her, and they were very inexpensive. I'm sure we had people who would sell like we kill pigs and sell meat throughout the winter winter months, and you would buy enough that you could put in the freezer to last long time. Same thing with beef. You could find people who were killing.
My mom knew people from Buckingham because that was her original. That's where she was born and almost there was veggies people with farms that had gardens, and you would just they they kinda like.I mean, now it was probably expensive to her back then, but I look back on it, and she would come with like bags and bags of like squash and potatoes and greens, and so we I I don't ever remember how you know. I hear people say, you know we were poor and we didn't have food. I remember being hungry because all 7 of us mom would make. My mom would make big things of cooked beans and squash and potatoes, and I mean you ate as much as you want it. But she really lived off the land. I can honestly say that she had a garden herself, but not in comparison to those places in Buckingham where she would go from people that she knew that knew her mom.
Peggy S: [06:14] So also the community. Everybody gave each other everything. It's like. if you needed butter. If you needed milk. It was truly a community kind of event where, a community thing, where people said, We're out of bread, you know. Go over to Miss so and so's house or Miss Luck, a lady that live right above right above us.
[06:36] The house we lived in was down a lane, so we have to walk up the lane, but Miss Luck would have things. She had a garden, so everybody had gardens, and everybody took care of everybody, and as mine, as I recall the staple institutions. I would say then, was truly the church and the school the only places that I recall when I grew up was New Hope Baptist Church and Yancy School. Were the 2 places we gathered. Sundays was church, Wednesdays was church. There was a Pentecostal church. They came into the area that I kind of left my Baptist background and went to for a little bit, and they were just as communal as everybody else. They dead people, they clothed people, they. I did that for about 7 years. And then went back to New Hope later. But that church experience was your social events were applied to the church.
Peggy S: [07:36] You had, you know, your revival. You had your Easter programs. You had your Christmas events. They all happen in the church or the school. So those were the institutions that I recall that we kinda gathered in funding entertainment was again the school, and they would have programs. And you'd go. And the children would put on programs. We would have a Mayday. And I mean, I was part of that when I was in school, but even when we weren't in school the adults showed up to Mayday for the children, you know, and it was a huge community event.
Peggy S: [08:16] As far as entertainment. I'm trying to think it was pretty much a social gathering. You did things with your community like, if you had birthdays you would have a birthday party pretty much. Everybody showed up in the community that was in your circle of neighbors. Right? They're probably your children, 6, 4.
Peggy S: [08:40] So yeah, so I'd say our entertainment was our community neighbors. The things we did for fun. You know, Easter, you had your Easter hunts had 30, 40, 50 people because everybody came together and joined in, we had community day in the community that was held at the school. People did yard sales on the school parking lot, which we found out that that shouldn't be happening as I've gotten older, but they always did. I mean yard sales and people bought things that they needed, and people, you know, it was kind of a little fundraiser for themselves. But you also saw that.
Peggy S: [09:19] That's when everybody got together and they ate together. They sold food. They sold items that you could, you know, use for your home. So it was kinda nice. But then I learned, as I got older, that you're not supposed to sell anything on county property.
Peggy S: [09:33] Sorry, guys. I attended via Yancey Elementary school in Scottsville School. We I gradu- well, left the into fifth grade. We went to Scottsvilles So Scottsville School, which is not in existence now, nor the Yancey school. They were both schools I attended. I went to Alba High School. for ninth grade and and tenth grade, part of tenth grade. Then I went away to Maryland, and I finished my tenth grade and eleventh grade year there, and I ended up wanting to be done cause because I felt like when we were growing up. We weren't poor in the sense that we didn't have money money, but I would go every summer from the age of like 13 on to Maryland, to my grandfather, who live there because my grandmother and grandfather had divorced, and he had a store, and he would always invite any of the grandkids or children who wanted to come. We could work in his store or my uncle's store, so I would go there in the summers and work, and then they would send the money back to er my mom in an envelope after the summers, and we would have money for clothing and whatever we needed for the school year.
Peggy S: [10:41] But then, when I got to my tenth grade year, my aunt said that I could come up, and I didn't think she, that my mother would let me. But she did, and I went there, and I finished my tenth grade year there, and I learned about a GED you could get that you could like, take a GED and be out of school. Not realizing that it was real, I mean, not realizing that I would, you know, even necessarily pass it. But I went to tenth grade year there, after I learned about the GED. I came back home and was headed to the eleventh grade and I ended up. I got my boyfriend and I have been boy. My husband, who is my husband now was me and him a boyfriend girlfriend even throughout while I was in Maryland, and I was probably what 16 got pregnant and thought, Oh, God! This is a great way to get out of school, and I'll have a kid right not, you know, just so naive. Lord, I mean, Hi! Great family, wonderful people, church and all good, but thought, this is a great way to get out of school and go towork and have a kid, right? So actually took the GED. Noah and passedit. But I was also advanced advanced classes. That's what was so disappointing to my mother was that, you know I kinda did my ninth, ninth grade year. I was in all advanced classes, and then tenth for a year all advanced classes, and then told her about the GED. And she thought was crazy.
Peggy S: [12:03] and, like I said, signed up to take it. And you get this prep book right. And I wanted to do the prep book in a program, but they didn't have the Prep book. I mean, they, I didn't have a program that I knew about. So I did the Prep book on my own. And so when I went to take the GED, I not only passed it, passed it with great numbers and thought, Okay, I'm done with school now. I can go to work. Well, I went to work at Mcdonalds.
Peggy S: [12:29] Like that was a real job back then. And the community again, even though I was pregnant and working, the community was wonderful. They surround you, they, you know. My mom was angry about it, of course, but the community just rallied around us, and Dusty's family, my husband. They rallied around us. Everybody is. They wanted you to have children, I mean, that was a big thing. I really wanted kids. I- you know, I don't know what that was about, but I think about it now. I had a great. My children were wonderful. But anyway, had my son working? Mcdonald's became a little supervisor, thought that was great, did that for, like probably 3 or 4 years, and then decided, you know what this is. Real labor.
Peggy S: [13:09] I kind of figured it out as I got older and like I said, the community rallied around us. So we had support from his family, from my family. Got her own place, raised. Their son, you know, moved to Charlottesville. People helped us with that, and I decided, I wanted to go back to school, and I think my son was like 4 or 5 went back and got my lp again. The community supported us with babysitting and support. It just was a wonderful.
Peggy S: [13:39] It's like nothing you did push people away from you. They were always there for you. When people got into issues with the law, there was family members and community who was right there rallying around. I just remember them being such good, kind people always and still to this day the ones that are still there. You know you have a lot of new people in the community that I don't know.
Peggy S: [14:03] But for the, the ones that I do know, they're still right there for you. They're supporting everything. Any endeavor. You come up with that you wanna do for the community? When I did the project with the entry way into the school, community was wonderful. Just right there, thinking it was a great idea. The school it closed. Everybody's heart was broken. People were sad. We waited a little while because there was a lot of anger and animosity about the county. So we waited a little bit because we didn't want to say the counties given us permission to put this in the entry way when they felt like they own the school because their forefathers had bought the land, donated it to this county to build the school. But after, you know, probably 8 or 9 months, we started talking to the community about the entry way and recognizing the work that had been done by the community. They came on board again.
Peggy S: [14:43] So yeah, just just the example of how the people in that community have stuck together and just thrive despite all the issues. As far as major historical events, I have to honestly say, closing the school was a major event. People will talk to you if you walk down the street about that school, closing in 2017, and how the county, I mean, I bet we went to the county with about 80 to a hundred people talking to them about why the school so vital to keep going in the community, and why it was so important to keep the children in the community, because actually, you have grandparents who volunteered at the school, who would walk to the school, even though they didn't have cars to help with, you know, doing projects for the kids or tutoring the kids. And what have you? And they knew all of that would be lost. So that was a major major issue. And I see you guys have something here.
[15:53] About AHIP! Not quite sure what that means.
Carlehr Swanson: [16:03] You want to love Ray, Sophia.
Sophia Jang: [16:05] Yeah. So I was talking with I think it was Graham Page about.
Peggy S: [16:09] Beef.
Sophia Jang: [16:10] Changes that happened. I was specifically looking to pages garage, and that at some point, and he thought might have been because of redevelopment through AHIP. I'm not sure if that was happening while you're in Esmont, or if you're aware of.
Peggy S: [16:26] So. Is Alpha. My housing improvement program and what they do is they go into people's homes right? That or of a certain income and they help them restore their homes if they have issues. So Alma, housing improvement program was definitely a group that I know because I've working with a group called Health Equity and Access to Rural regions.
[16:50] Even before that, when I was just kind of doing it as a community advocate, we would help. We would help families that needed support to get in touch with AHIP and then help them figure out. You know what kind of resources they needed to be able to sort of bring their home back to a livable kind of conditions, and a was funded through grants and private donations, I guess.
[17:14] And so I want housing. Improvement program was definite, has always been an integral part of support to people in the community. In that the economic status of most of the individuals. There was incomes that were below oftentimes the poverty line. But then they still exist. They're still very integral in thecommunity. They're still helping people. There are people that- AHIP have probably restored many of the elders in the community's homes or restored areas in the home, not the home itself, but areas in the home. So AHIP has been a- I mean, it has not divested.
[17:52] It is an X, because, as a matter of fact, we had our Integrated Service delivery model meeting over at the Equity Center at UVA's Equity Center just Friday, and a representative from AHIP was there, and we asked, you know, we wanted to know what AHIP is doing right now to be able to plug some families into their programs. And she was very forthcoming in that. AHIP. It has a backlog backlog which it always has a backlog. But they are very much engaged, and working on 2 or 3 houses, and as my presently and will continue to be there to support the families that have need there.
[18:26] But yeah, as far as divestment. I would think the biggest thing was the school closing, farmers home built many of the houses out in the community. Also we had support from, what's the other housing group? Habitat for humanity? They have houses that they also supported building houses out in that community that a couple of the families from the community are presently in.
[18:58] But as far as changes in my lifetime in Esmont, I guess I see that the community kinda has turned or changed where new families are always moving in, old families. Many of the youth have left and gone into areas, you know that are more diverse and more able to support their economic needs. The educational attainment of the residents of Esmont have been wonderful and and and and I'd say to the level that I'm sure no one would have thought that an area that is considered in the poverty range.
[19:40] I mean, we. They've had people from Esmont that are judges, many, many, many educators, individuals that have done well with their lives that no longer live in Esmont, but came out of that educational system. With the colored schools. So I can say that the changes I see now is the community itself has changed dramatically in that families knew each other. You knew the children, the children knew you parents connected almost daily, and I don't see that as much as we did when I was in Esmont.
[20:19] We had a store in Asma, my husband and I and those businesses were based pretty much on people being able to borrow or pay you on a timeline, and we close that store because we probably did have too many people, you know, that could not afford to pay their you know, their debt. But also the store itself. I was a nurse at the time, and the store itself was 6 days a week, and and it was a lot. So we decided, my husband turned it into a house that was the old Porters store that the Jordans and gardeners ran.
[20:59] We purchased that and then we did it as a lease to own this what we did, and when, like I said me working full time, my husband working for Alma County, me working as a nurse. It was a lot more than we had anticipated it be, and we thought we could just open it on our kinda timeline, but people really relied upon it, so we had to keep it open. My mother helped me helped us in it, on her terms when she was ready to do so, and when she wasn't, it was closed, you know, so it wasn't a good thing for us to try to maintain it and then find that we couldn't meet the needs of the community, so fact that people couldn't pay what they needed to pay, and we couldn't also keep it open as often as we wanted. It caused us to close it.
[21:43] So those are the changes that I think you know, having so many businesses in the community that you didn't need to go outside of it. Not having the barbershop there. My husband used to use the barbershop when he was growing up. That barber shop went away. All the different businesses sort of transition out, as people you know, aged and and, you know, passed away. So you don't have that business sense in the community that you had back in the days of old. They still have people, you know, we share things where still communal in that come together at the community center.
[22:17] The community center is like a beacon. I think if it wasn't there. I I really don't know what would happen with that community if the community center wasn't there. They have one little store there. I I don't see the investment from the store owner in the community, but it is there, and it does have some of the. You know things that you need. But most people go to Scottsville or Charlottesville for their. you know, shopping?
[22:41] So that's a change. When it was happening pretty much in the community most often. But as far as changes go in my lifetime, it's been the loss of youth, the loss of their students going to Scottsville versus in the Community school that's been huge. So you don't see the connection with the youth that you saw when we were coming up.
[23:03] I mean, it was nothing to see a grandparent in the school when I was a student. It was nothing to see, you know. My uncle or aunt show up there to help with something or talk to this, you know, teachers, if we had to. If my mom was working. I'm sure Scottsville that does not happen. So, taking them out of the community.
[23:21] I feel like it's been a detriment in a lot of ways, as far as community investment. I see a little change in that you have a few like. Probably in the days of old there was a garden club. There was a Women's League and Men's League that actually looked to enhance the community and none of that exist. Now you mainly have the people at the community center working. We we do have the food pantry which was not in existence. We have, you know, some resources like Blueidge health district in the Community center. Job in the community center. Job has been in Esmont for years and years and years long before the Community Center came about. But it was at the Oddfellows Hall that's still in existence, and it's growing.
[24:10] It was he. It was a huge place for the elders to go before, and now it's sort of coming back. But it kind of went away a little bit. It sort of died out. You didn't have as many residents attending, and now it's picking back up because of word of mouth as well as the actual JABA leads going out into the community and contacting families to, you know. Consider utilizing it. So I'd say the the things that have been. I guess the most noted how the community has evolved. Having some resources in the community is a good thing, but how it has evolved hasn't necessarily been the most beneficial to the residents that live out in the southern side. About one county. We're working hard to make that happen and come back to where it needs to be.
[24:56] But those elders knew how to sort of keep a community afloat. And now you have a few handful of people working to do that versus the entire community coming together to do it.
[25:07] What are some of my favorite places? And as my, of course, the community center, as you all know, is one of the areas that I do a lot of my work. I'd say the church, of course, is always going to be integral in our lives. That's pretty important. And my, my big memories would be, memories of how we join. You know, we gathered at the school, and how we gathered at the church, and how we had functions and events that you know, the entire community showed up to, and I know those are days of old, but they were days that were really good days. The memories are memories that, you know. You looked at home coming, and everybody from everywhere, no matter where they resided. You know, whether it was up north or out west they showed up to revival.
[25:55] If you had mating at the school. Everybody in the community showed up because they wanted to see the children, even if they didn't have children of their own. Those kind of things have gone away and it would be wonderful to bring them back. We're even talking about a media at some point. We're not quite sure how to make that happen. But we're just we've discussed it.
[26:13] What I value most about, what I value most about what I do now. I think I value the, the volunteerism that I am involved in. I value being engaged with the community center. I value being engaged with the community at large. I try to encourage that, my children, grandchildren, even if the children aren't here when they are here to try to be engaged in the community, just to sort of if you're doing nothing more than saying, Hi!
[26:42] You know the residents, the ones that are there. They remember you. They haven't forgotten you. I think it's shaped my worldview in that when people pull together when they come together to attain whatever it may be, those residents can do almost anything if they choose to put the effort and energy in. Have the faith that it can happen. I feel like Esmont is a shining example of the old. The old Esmont is a shining example of what it looks like when a community truly works together. When a community has the best, the interest of the community at large.
[27:23] And that helps me in my day to day. It helps me in my, you know, volunteerism. It helps me. In my faith. I won't forget those things. Those are values that will be with me forever, you know, caring for one another, supporting one another, you see the gains from it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, guys have any questions?
Carlehr Swanson: [27:58] I think we do. Thank you. That was great. I think we do have some follow up, Sophia?
Peggy S: [28:02] Okay.
Sophia Jang: [28:03] Yeah, I think you mentioned the area where you grew up. Was it primarily white community? And so, oh, I was wondering if you could speak about some examples, sort of the difference in community between where you grew up in Esmont. If you're able to.
Peggy S: [28:23] Okay, so, being out in the Charlottesville Kane area, all the neighbors around were neighbors. Oh, that were white neighbors. Or let's say, Caucasian neighbors. The children. We didn't have that much of a difference. We kind of played together. There was family behind us by the name of the Morrises. They had horses. We kind of walked up to their houses as children, and we would ride their horses. We would play together in their fields. We had a stream down behind their house, and we played together in the stream.There was a gentleman over to the left side of our house. He would come over and sit in the yard and talk with my grandmom and with us. No issues.
[29:17] I don't even think we realized enough about I-I'd say, situation did happen to me when I was younger. I was probably in the- I was in Scottsville school. So I want to say maybe sixth grade, seventh grade, and I had a friend, and her name was Cynthia, and she and I still communicate from time to time. and I didn't know about the race thing as well. So I, she and I. I asked her to come to my house, and her Dad told her she could, and so she rode the bus home with me. And I lived in like I said, a pretty much the area around us at that time when I was younger, was white.
[29:59] And so when she came she got to see our neighbors, and so forth. But when my grandmother got home because we were at her house, and we were there, and she came, and she was just frantic. She kind of went into a space, and she was like. Why is she here? And she had told me that we know I could bring her and everything cause my mom was at work, but she said we could bring him. But she didn't know that this was a white, a girl that was Caucasian. She just knew she was my friend, and I guess she thought in my head. I knew it, probably. You know.
[30:29] Was it just, anyway? She must have thought I knew, but she immediately said she had to go home. And I was like, Wow. I just have to go home. And you know we just got we haven't been here that long cause. It was probably a couple of hours we were playing, and then my aunt comes, and my grandmother comes and says she has go home, and my aunt puts me in the car and her in the car, and she's taken us back to her house, and my grandma had said something about these boys could be hung and these boys could be whipped. And I'm thinking they're so young. I mean, they're like young like me.
[31:01] And what does she mean? They could be what. So anyway, we take Cynthia home and we get to her house, and her dad is out on the porch. I think it is. And this memory is just in my mind, because now I know what it meant. But he, my aunt, gets out of the car and he starts to yell. and he asked Cynthia. He was like, what do you? What what do you think you're doing? What do you think you're doing? Why are you with those people? And she was like, this is my my friend. I went to her house, but I had to come home, and he was like, What do you mean? You went to her house. Why do you go to that nigger's house? And he used the word nigger, and I am telling you the truth. I don't know that Cynthia knew that it was a really bad word, or even me think it cause I'd not been called that ever.
[31:43] And my aunt knew. So she literally got in the car and started busting at me and telling me I need to understand, and I that stayed with me as an adult forever. But at that time, even after that, Cynthia and I was friends at school. We just couldn't go into this house, and I don't think anybody ever explained to us what all that meant. We just knew that for some reason that we couldn't go to each other's houses, and as we got older we talk about that. And it's just kind of funny now, because we still weren't tainted by. You know you're you're black, and I'm I'm I'm Caucasian. We just thought they were just being over zealous at the time. We thought they were just crazy. And as we got older it was like, Oh, my God! And this was. This had to be like in the 70 early seventies, like 70, like what was going on, man. And now I'm older, and as I got older I was like, Oh, gosh, wow!
[32:43] That was what was going on. And you know what's so weird is, the bus driver you would have thought would have known when he dropped us off. Like, why are you going to her house? You know nobody ever said anything about it, but like I said my grandmother never knew she was Caucasian, and my her dad probably never knew I was black, so that was probably part of it. But yeah, that stood out.
Sophia Jang: [33:05] Thank you for sharing that. It sounds like. yeah, with that generational divide, it can also be really confusing for a kid when you're a kid.
Peggy S: [33:13] Oh!
Sophia Jang: [33:14] Yeah.
Peggy S: [33:15] Yeah, it was kind of weird. Yeah. But like, I said, I got older and learned about racism real. Well. So if if Kate I got. I got the education, but my parents never, ever. I could like, you know-they act. It's just. It's just so dynamic in my head. I don't ever remember my mom thinking or saying anything about race or my grandmother. That incident came and it went and we still lived in the same community with all the white kids coming together with the black kids. But there was a line that you learned, but like I said, it didn't impact me until I was older and understood more about what it meant. Yeah, yeah.
Carlehr Swanson: [34:09] I wanted to know more about the churches you grew up in. So you talked about how you were in a Baptist church, and then you went to a Pentecostal church. Did you experience any differences between those 2?
Peggy S: [34:20] Oh, gosh! Yes, Lord! So both churches Baptist from 14 to about 30 s. And we, we met, you know, Sundays and Wednesdays. Sunday school church. Wednesday's Bible study, and religiously so, and love the learning about. You know, my Lord and Savior. Families, new families, we would have, you know. Sunday dinner at home, and the preacher would come and visit and eat and leave, and probably cause the houses were close together, so you could just go houseouse to house and visit, and very communal again. Families knew each other intricately and very supportive, all of them.
[35:08] Baptist Church, you know you do your Sunday thing. You go home. You go to school Monday, your your week, and then you're back on Wednesday. And my mom wasn't a big- wasn't big into going to church. But the kids you get up and you're going and we did. And so like, I said I was baptized at 14, and just kind of really got engaged. Got, you know, became part of the missionary and all that good stuff, even as a young person, and I think that was true for many of the youth in our church we were part of something, all of us, and-and about, I'd say I was probably in my mid thirties.
[35:46] A pastor was a woman. The church elders really wasn't happy with that, because we got she got voted in by more of the younger people. And they decided once to have a meeting, and I was very engaged in church. So I went to the meeting. I think I was probably one or 2 of the only younger ones who went and we, I found out the meeting was to get rid of our pastor. And I was just totally able to be vocal in life. I don't know. Somebody raised me that way. And so they had this paper. They were sitting around, and they wanted people to sign it to say whether or not you voted out. But we, but I. The reason to vote out was because she gave money or something out of her discretionary fund to a family without like vetting it.
[36:30] She just kind of gave them money for electricity, or whatever I don't know, and she didn't really believe in vetting that she just believed if you came to the church, and she had a discretion in front, and to me I thought that was just so generous, and all the things I learned in my faith was, This is what you do right? So I couldn't understand why we were voting or out. But I really believe we would vote now because she was a female. She got in through the youth, they were having this little meeting, and a lot of the youth didn't come to the meetings. The younger people in the church can come to the meeting. So they had this little meeting, and they thought, well, you, the majority of the elders are gonna show up, and they always do. And so they wrote this little thing and signed it. So she got voted out because I wasn't enough of us to keep her in. And I decided, you know what this is, not how my faith works and my religion works Christianity works. So I'm leaving.
[37:20] And at that time there happened to be a Pentecostal church in the community. So I went to visit it a few times way before I left. You know my Baptist church, and when I went it was a woman leader and she was very charismatic. Very. You know, engaging. And I kinda thought I knew this could be cool. I'm gonna just start going here a little bit. And so I've been going there, you know if our church wasn't in session and they had service. I would go well, I finally transitioned over after I pastor left, and when I got there I learned that the Pentecostal we could be in church Monday through Sunday.
[37:56] We were in church a lot. The kids were in church, my poor children, we on benches, sleeping 10, 11 o'clock at night. We're praying and tearing about whomever's in need, and that was very for me, satisfying. But I kinda got- I probably was there about 7 years, and I probably in my fifth year. I kinda decided as much as I love this. We had a male bishop and I learned that again. Women really couldn't be the head of the church, even though this woman was leading the church. The Bishop had to come and sign off on everything. So it was just like my Baptist church. Kinda I just had a bishop. He was at a- he was in Newport News, and he would come if we had to do anything big like baptize anybody, or, you know, do anything that was of any real significance.
[38:50] So I was like, well, this is just like the Baptist Church. But anyway. I went back to the Baptist church, the pastor herself, she left, and then I transition back to the Baptist church, and I just, you know, even though I was in the church, I just became more vocal about my just content with the fact that we voted someone out, and I joined the ushers, board and all the other boards, so I could have a say, and I just kinda shared that if I had a I-I'm just as okay with the female pastor as I am with the male, and I felt like, that's you know, we're not being good about what God would have us to do. I kinda share that, anyway, but I got more vocal about it, and so we haven't had a female pastor since.
[39:31] But we've had some really good couple of good pastors since her and I'm you know I'm pretty contented with the Baptist church here, but that's what happened. I love the Pentecostal Church. We, we tallied and prayed, you know, tarried and prayed often, and it really made me feel, you know, fulfilled in that. But, like I said, when Pastor Jordan left, it was like. you know, the church kind of dwindled down, dwindled down, dwindled down, and we were having service one Sunday a month, and I kinda like going to church.
Carlehr Swanson: [40:01] Thank you for that. It's a shame how to do women in the church.
Peggy S: [40:05] It really was. It was all. I think they wouldn't dare do it, but it was. It was bad. Yeah.
Carlehr Swanson: [40:12] I just had one last question. So you talked about a lot of like community places. But were there any places for like music or dancing, or movies, or any places like that in the community.
Peggy S: [40:24] So I wasn't, evidently, I wasn't in Esmont, but there were places that people would go for dancing. It was called Julia's. Julia's inn. I I don't. I've never been there, but my husband said he would go there, and he was young. He was still getting and they sold alcohol, so I don't know how you got it, but I guess they didn't probably have the age thing then. Cause he's 74, 72, and he would go there, but I never went there, but he said Julia’s in was a place they would go, and they could party and dance and then I'm, I'm, he. I heard from Carl. There was a place called Cozy Corner. There was a story that sold products for the community, but they would also have like a little jukebox or something in the back, and you could go back there and have entertainment.
Peggy S: [41:10] I, only movies I remember going to would be at the school, and they would do movies in the gym, and you could go there. But other than that, you had to go to Fork Union, or outside of your community for movies, and we would do the drive in theater a lot with the kids. And that was in Fork Union, though we didn't have anything in our community that we could go to. But that's most of the entertainment as far as my entertainment.
[41:36] I think we had a big enough family that we entertained ourselves. Oftentimes my mom had somebody at her house every Sunday the whole family would show up, and she would cook, and they would have music playing, and kids dance and adults dance. And then, I mean, we entertained ourselves. We had a huge family. Yeah, yeah.
Carlehr Swanson: [41:58] Okay, thank you. Any more questions. You guys have any more questions?
Aindrila Choudhury: [42:04] I had a question about the community centers talking about the church and the school that now closed. Being sort of like the centers of the community in the past. Has the community center join the church and sort of like holding the community together? Right now, at this point? Certainly bringing the community together, and.
Peggy S: [42:24] That is a really good question. Angela. No. I've not seen the church and the community join. The people in the church. Do come to the community center, but as a union where both organize. No, I've not seen that. That's a good question. You know, we try to make for sure that the anything that happens in the community center that I'm involved in, it goes out to the churches for the clerk to be able to share. But as far as a community day happens where Albemarle County Community center come together and the churches are invited to participate with anything they want. But no, no, no. I haven't seen that so much. Hmm, it's a good question, yeah, i'll have to ask about, I will have to talk about that.
Carlehr Swanson: [43:28] Okay, well, I think that's it. Thank you so much, Miss Peggy. That was great.
Peggy S: [43:32] You are so welcome. And I wanted to give you guys a name once the recording is off of who you're going to reach out to for the individual. That's the well. She is the senior female in our church, and she is so, she's like, I'm the oldest woman in our church, and she is at New Hope and I want to give you her information so that you can try to reach out to, she said.
Carlehr Swanson: [43:56] Before we speak.
Peggy S: Go ahead!
Carlehr Swanson: [43:58] I'm so sorry. Oh, before we stop the recording, can you say your full name and spell it.
Peggy S: Yes, it's Peggy Scott, and it's PEGG, y. SCOT. T. And it's not Margaret.
Carlehr Swanson: [44:13] Thank you.
Peggy S: [44:15] Everybody.