Voices of America

The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., an educational and cultural institution serving the residents of metropolitan Washington, presents Growing Up in Washington, D.C.: An Oral History, a book of memories excerpted from dozens of oral history interviews about childhood in Washington during the twentieth century. Telling stories of the past-from playing soccer on the National Mall to visiting the Zoo, from marching in inaugural parades to riding the roller coasters at Suburban Gardens-residents from all four quadrants of the city, from different racial and religious backgrounds, have documented the vital history of our nation's capital in their hearts and minds. In this collection, they share their personal experiences of attending school, celebrating holidays, playing games with friends, riding the streetcars and metro, and growing up in families and neighborhoods that, early on, shaped the course of their lives. Their fascinating tales and anecdotes provide a window into the city's development as seen through the innocent, yet discerning, eyes of its children. Illustrated with historic images of city life, such as eating at the Hot Shoppes and ice skating on the mall, and of recognizable local landmarks, such as Hains Point, the fun house at Glen Echo, and Rock Creek Park, Growing Up in Washington, D.C. brings to life the people and places that have helped to create the city's singular character. A one-of-a-kind testament to the variety of life in the great capital of the United States, this collection of personal childhood stories and vintage photographs offers a wealth of perspectives on growing up in Washington during the twentieth century.

In this valuable volume of oral history, the recorded childhood memories of African Americans--from family rituals to first jobs, neighborhood games to school--are illustrated with vintage photographs culled from family albums and archives.

Chronicling the period from 1900 to the 1950s, Growing Up Black in New Castle County, Delaware brings together the touching stories of African Americans in northern Delaware who grew up during an era of both hardship and happiness. In a time when racial segregation was law and the nation faced such challenges as war and economic depression, African-American children in New Castle County and around the country were busy exploring the world around them-playing with friends, celebrating holidays, attending school, and learning the important life lessons that would carry them through the rest of the twentieth century.

"In 1830," Isaac S. Lyon wrote, "Boonton was one of the wildest, rockiest, briariest and most romantic places that the mind of man could imagine." More than a century later, a visitor told his wife, "May, you should see that town of Boonton. The whole Main Street is on a hill. I never saw a town with a Main Street on a hill." These were the first impressions of a town built upon the foundation of its ironworks and "iron town," populated by hardy, self-reliant men and women. Among the earliest immigrants were the English, recruited by the New Jersey Iron Company in 1830 and numbering about thirty families. Within the next two decades, Irish laborers came to work in the mills, followed by Slovaks in the 1890s ,and Italians, Poles, and Germans around the beginning of the 1900s. Two smaller groups were African Americans, some of whose ancestors had come to Boonton 150 years earlier, and Jews, who arrived c. 1900 and later. In Boonton, the descendants of these early families and newcomers reveal the Boonton of yesterday and today, and anticipate the Boonton of tomorrow. Among them is a retired kindergarten teacher who was greeted by the local "fellas" when she got off the bus in Boonton for the first time at age twenty-one. A ninety-four-yearold recalls his experiences eighty years ago as a truck driver, running molasses for the local gin mills. An eighty-one-year-old tells of the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, and a woman remembers the horror of the 1918 flu epidemic.

The Fagan Sisters speaks of life in a county village in upstate New York. Sally and Agnes Fagan were born in the village of Copake Falls and lived there through almost all of the 20th century. Their experiences, however, were not confined to that village, located about 50 miles south of Albany near the Massachusetts and Connecticut borders. Even in their childhood, they frequently traveled by horse and buggy or train to visit relatives in neighboring states. The sisters talk about their people who left Ireland during the famine of the mid-1800s, arrived in the rural area, and found work in the mines and later on the railroads. They reminisce about their own school days, their wide circle of friends, and their simple and more elegant pleasures. They recall their first years as teachers in the classroom, where they experienced the prejudice that existed against Irish Catholics at that time.