Oral History Interview with Michael Stanley
Conducted by Stephanie Mills Trice
For the DC Oral History Collaborative as part of the Voices of the DC Fort Totten Storytellers
June 5, 2018 63 minutes
White Oak Public Library 11701 New Hampshire Avenue Silver Spring, Maryland
Biographical Information: Michael Stanley is a native Washingtonian born at Georgetown Hospital where his mother worked. He lived with his family on Savannah Terrace in Southeast Washington until they moved to the Fort Totten neighborhood in approximately 1955 when he was six years old. He attended Keene Elementary School until the sixth grade, then MacFarland for seventh grade and part of eighth grade. Halfway through his eighth-grade year Bertie Backus was opened and he attended there the remainder of eighth grade and ninth grade. He was in the first graduating class of Bertie Backus. He attended high school at Roosevelt. After graduating from high school, he got a job and was later drafted into the Army where he served for two years and nine months. After that he attended college at UDC where he majored in business management.
This oral history interview was conducted with Michael Stanley by Stephanie Mills Trice in Silver Spring, Maryland. Michael Stanley was born at Georgetown Hospital. He lived with his family on Savannah Terrace in Southeast
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Washington until they moved to the Fort Totten neighborhood in approximately 1955 when he was six years old. He talks about the close-knit nature of the Fort Totten community and the long-lasting friendships that formed among neighborhood children. He attended Keene Elementary School until the sixth grade, then MacFarland for seventh grade and part of eighth grade. Halfway through his eighth-grade year Bertie Backus was opened and he attended there the remainder of eighth grade and ninth grade. He was in the first graduating class of Bertie Backus. He attended high school at Roosevelt. After graduating from high school, he got a job and was later drafted into the Army where he served for two years and nine months. After that he attended college at UDC where he majored in business management. 00:00:02 SMT: All righty. Okay. This is for recording purposes, Michael Stanley. My name is Stephanie Trice, and today is June 5, 2018. And we’re sitting in the White Oak Library, and that address is 11701 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. And Mr. Stanley will be sharing his personal experiences of living in the Fort Totten community.
Yeah. MS:
And I’ve known Michael, as I will call you, for a very, very long time, I guess over 45 years, most all my life. SMT:
Probably 50. MS:
SMT: Yeah, probably 50. And I thank you for taking the time to sit down with me for this very special DC initiative.
MS: My pleasure. I hope I’m helpful.
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Okay. Can you tell me your full name, a little bit about yourself, and a story of where you were born, including SMT: the hospital?
Okay. I am Michael Stanley, Michael Joseph Stanley to make it right, get my daddy’s first name in there. My mother and father brought me to the area of Fort Totten in probably 1955. I think that was around the time. I might have been six years old. I was born in ’49 so that’s about right. I was born at Georgetown Hospital. My MS: mother was a nurse there. So naturally she got the free benefits. But I started off my life, I lived in Southeast Washington, Savannah Terrace. Matter of fact, I rode by that neighborhood not long ago, 1922, I remember that address. I don’t know how, but I rode by and said I used to live there.
Nineteen twenty-two Savannah Terrace. SMT:
MS: Savannah Terrace Southeast, yes.
SMT: Okay.
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We moved to Fort Totten again I’d say in I think it was 1955. I was about six years old so that’s about right. And I attended Keene Elementary School. Wow. And they’re no longer there. It’s a -- what is it, a -- MS:
It’s a charter school. SMT:
Charter school, yeah. But growing up in that neighborhood was wonderful. I met people like Stephanie and her brothers. We all had a lot of fun. We played ball. We played games. We ran up and down the MS: street. I had a lot more energy back then than I do now. I’ll put it that way, but it was fun.
Okay. What brought your parents to DC? Were they SMT: native Washingtonians or --
MS: Work brought them both here if I’m not mistaken, or job opportunities I guess I should say. My mother was a nurse so she went to school here. She was from Roanoke, Virginia -- not Roanoke, a little place called Bedford County, Virginia, Moneta or something like that and you blink your eyes, you’re through it, one of those small towns.
My father was from South Carolina. I can’t remember exactly what town, but we spent a lot of time in Conway, South Carolina, which is like 12 miles from Myrtle Beach. Believe it or not we never spent a lot of time at the beach because back then it was totally segregated. They only had a small section that blacks could go in. So we didn’t spend a lot of time at the 4 beach, but we spent a lot of time in, as I called it back then, the country with a lot of cousins and everything. Some summers we went to my mother’s home; some summers we went to my father’s home, but you got out of DC. Right after school closed we were gone, and we stayed with family for the most part. They’d come back and get us just before school started. So I spent a lot of summers down there until I was probably I guess maybe 12 or so, 13. Then I got to hang out with my neighborhood folks.
SMT: Can you tell me your first memory of living in Fort Totten? You already told me your age. You were about six when you moved to Buchanan Street. What was your address on Buchanan Street?
My address was 10 Buchanan Street Northeast. One of my first memories, believe it not -- do you remember MS: Frank Durphy?
Yes, I do. SMT:
MS: He lived across the street. He lived somewhere in Southeast near us where we knew him when we moved here. So his family was one we knew when we got here, and I was totally shocked. I was like what. We had an old neighbor from Southeast now living across the street even though I think he was closer to my brother’s age, and he had an older brother named Shelly [phonetic] I think. So they introduced us to other people in the neighborhood. Yeah, it was a great neighborhood. It’s when neighborhoods were neighborhoods. 00:05:01 SMT: Okay. Do you know why or how your parents came about purchasing that particular house? Do you think they were informed maybe by someone else that was currently already there or --
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I have no idea to be honest with you. MS:
Just curious. SMT:
I’m going to assume it was probably the price and somebody informed them of that because my father had a brother who lived not far from there actually on it was Northwest or off of Fifth Street Northwest -- Quintana, Fifth and Quintana. So he may have some kind of way influenced -- and then they were thick as thieves so MS: there’s no telling. It put them closer together and everything.
So did you all visit a lot? SMT:
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Oh, yeah. He helped finish our basement down there. MS:
SMT: Okay. When you moved in the house, what was your first memory of the neighborhood? If you can remember anything about maybe your room or anything when you first came to Buchanan Street.
From living in an apartment, I thought we ended up in a very large room. As I looked at is as I got older, I said, “How did we survive in this itty-bitty room?” It was two twin beds in there my brother and I shared. There was another smaller room that we ended up having various family live in over the years. Frank Durphy introduced us to a lot of people. Everybody was nice. Lots of kids in the neighborhood. I don’t even see neighborhoods like that anymore. Some friends and I, we still talk about that we had a neighborhood that was out of this world. I think everybody got along. We enjoyed each other. It’s just not MS: [unintelligible], but it was a ton of kids. And that was Buchanan Street and two streets over. Crittenden behind us and Allison on the other side. We got along with everybody and it was great.
SMT: Good. Okay. Who lived with you besides your parents? You had one brother.
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MS: One brother and periodically we had cousins who moved in from -- three from South Carolina -- wait a minute, that’d have been four from South Carolina actually. It’s my father’s side of the family came to stay with us for temporary periods. Very rarely was it more than a year. One ended up in Chicago. Two of them stayed here, but they got their own place. One of them is deceased now, but the other one is still alive. Velamina [phonetic] was her name. I’m trying to think was there somebody else. Martha, Martha’s still here. She lives -- yeah, she’s still --
What’s her whole name? I mean can you just -- SMT:
Martha Stanley. MS:
Okay. SMT:
Velamina [phonetic] Stanley, Willis [phonetic] Stanley, and Evelyn Stanley all from South Carolina had came here MS: to live with us for a period of time.
SMT: So it was like a steppingstone to come to DC to get employment.
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MS: Mm-hmm. Everybody ended up employed here except for Evelyn who moved on. I think she worked here for a while and then she moved to Chicago.
And your brother’s name? SMT:
Clifford Stanley. He did 30-some years in the Marine MS: Corps. Retired as a two-star general.
Okay. Very good. SMT:
Yeah. MS:
Very good. Can you describe Fort Totten or explain what it is? Pretty much hit on as far as the neighbors how everybody was nice, but Fort Totten itself, can you SMT: describe --
The park [unintelligible]? MS:
SMT: The park or yeah. MS: The park was a good playground. I guess they were like old brick slabs of -- well, if you were [unintelligible] I don’t know. We used to go in there and climb all over them and jump off of them, and we played hide-and-go-seek. The fellows played football, baseball all up in that park. We would spend the entire day up there sometimes. Even more so through my -- I guess probably from nine -- eight, nine years old to about 12 or 13.
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They had a summer day camp, and I was enrolled every year. That’s after I stopped going to South Carolina I was going to camp. Great camp. We used to sing songs, play games, make little doodads and stuff to keep. The counselors were outstanding. I don’t know where they came from. Some of them were college folks, but I spent probably four years in that day camp and somewhere along the line I found out I could become a junior counselor and I became a junior counselor for two years, nonpaid, but I went up there because I had so much fun and helped out with the kids because I was a kid, but I helped out with the kids. 00:10:00 So that lasted at least two years and then I got ahead of myself and said I can’t do this no more; I want to hang out and have fun with all my friends.
So when did you stop volunteering for day camp? SMT:
I was probably about, let’s see, from probably somewhere between 10 and 11 I stayed in camp, and I think from 12 or 13 -- I was 12, 13, maybe 14 I was a MS: junior counselor.
Oh, okay. SMT:
Something like that. And I intended on going back because a counselor get paid, but other things caught MS: my attention.
Yeah. SMT:
So I never made it back. MS:
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So it was more like a campsite -- SMT:
MS: Yeah. SMT: -- environment where you -- did they do anything like -- I’ve heard stories in the past they had sleepovers up there.
They had two-week sessions, and at the end of each two-week session they had sleepover. So we spent the night up there, but we also did that when I was in the Boy Scouts too, but it was interesting because I was close to home and I got to stay away from home overnight. Had sleeping bags and a good time singing songs and playing little games. We used to go swimming during the day and a little everything, archery. I didn’t like archery too much. I wasn’t good at it. But the counselors were great. They were good with people. And that may be why I didn’t stay with it because I MS: wasn’t as great with people as they were. I was okay, but they did a fantastic job. I guess I was a little nervous that I couldn’t do a good job. I was still a kid so --
SMT: Okay. Thinking about the park itself and the entire neighborhood, what was your most favorite place to play in the neighborhood and why and who did you play with?
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Oh, god. That’s a lot of -- anybody who played football and baseball, and that included I think Michael Swann, Larry Lee, James Smallwood, Ricky Hatchett -- I’m trying to think -- Gregory Battle. Whew, let me think back. So many of us. We just went and played ball. The Cherrys, Glen and Carlton Cherry. MS: Whew, think about that. They’re both deceased now, and that bothers me some.
Yeah. SMT:
But it was the neighborhood. They were all in that three- block radius. We played -- I know Glen, Carlton, myself who else played. We played softball for Keene MS: Recreation.
Oh, Keene Rec? SMT:
Yeah. MS:
SMT: Okay. You were in a rec league then.
MS: Yeah.
Okay. SMT:
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We played baseball actually. It wasn’t softball; it was baseball. Carlton and Glen were good. I wasn’t as good, but I was there. We had a lot of fun. We MS: traveled to different recreation centers and played.
In the city? SMT:
Within the city, yeah. MS:
Okay. SMT:
My favorite place was Turkey Thicket. You remember MS: that?
Yeah, I do remember Turkey Thicket. SMT:
Yeah. MS:
SMT: It has been remodeled quite --
MS: Yeah. I’ve been --
-- beautifully. Yes. SMT:
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Wow. It doesn’t even look like the same place I used to play. But we played football there too I think for somebody. Oh, it might have been the rec too. I don’t know. I didn’t play on the football team as much, but I played baseball for several years. And I’m trying to think of this guy. This guy name was Sterling. MS: I can’t think of his last name. You remember Bloopy [phonetic]?
The name sounds familiar. SMT:
Sterling and he were cousins. Sterling used to ref, umpire baseball games at the Keene. I can’t think of his last name, but he’s been gone for so long so I don’t know. MS:
Yeah. Maybe it will come back to you later on. SMT:
MS: We’ll see.
SMT: Yeah.
Yeah. MS:
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Yeah. Like most of the people that grew up in Fort SMT: Totten, you had a lot of fun playing.
All the time. MS:
Okay. Did you family have a favorite pet? Can you tell me SMT: about that pet if you did, including its name?
I don’t remember his name. We had a dog. We lived in an end house right on the alley, and that dog got teased so much by people kicking the fence and he got mean. We may have had him I guess two years. He bit my father MS: and he had to go.
What kind of dog was it? SMT:
I don’t remember. It was a small dog, but he was -- MS:
SMT: Like a little hotdog? MS: No. What was he? I want to say a cocker spaniel or something like that, but I can’t quite remember because he wasn’t there a long time. I can’t even remember his name, nothing. When he bit my father, he was gone the next day. Simple as that. You can’t bite the hand that feeds you so my father said he got to go.
00:15:02 SMT: I can understand that.
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MS: He didn’t bother me, but he got my father for some reason and he had to go. My father did not play.
Yeah. That was the end of your pet days? SMT:
That was my last pet. The only person I know MS: that always had a pet was Michael Swann.
Oh, yeah. SMT:
He had dogs. MS:
SMT: Yeah, he did have dogs. MS: He still does. If I remember correctly, he still had one when he left here. I don’t know if he took him to Florida with him or not, but he had one when he left here.
Okay. All right. Now, as far as school is concerned, what was school like for you as a child? You already SMT: told me you went to Keene and you went to --
MacFarland and Backus. MS:
And Backus. SMT:
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And Roosevelt. MS:
Yes. SMT:
MS: School was okay. I had a lot of good friends in school. I wasn’t the best student. I was okay. My brother was a good student. He was always good, but I was like mediocre, and that was mainly because I just didn’t work hard. I was lazy. I learned by later in my years, but it didn’t stop anything from my life. I still did okay I think, but I could have done better I think. But school was difficult for me. I didn’t like to study, but I liked to have fun. That was the best thing. I always say I was the brawn and my brother was the brains because I played sports and he just studied for the most part. He never played anything with us.
Oh, he didn’t come out and play football or -- SMT:
He didn’t play any of the sports at all from my MS: recollection. I don’t remember anything.
Okay. SMT:
I think when he was at Roosevelt, he was on the track team. And I think he did pole vaulting which I never saw him do. I don’t even know how good he was at it, but he MS: did that.
SMT: Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Now can you tell me a story of one of your most favorite teachers you may have had? Anyone you can remember that left a lasting impression on you?
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MS: I have to say it was a neighbor. You remember Miss Bridges? Lived across the street from you I think. She had a son. I can’t remember his name. But she taught I want to say biology or something like that.
At which school? SMT:
I think at Backus. MS:
Backus. SMT:
MS: And she used to look at me and I was in class and she would -- I’m gonna tell your mother. She’d give me this look like I know who your mother is. I know where you live. She walked to my house one day and knocked on our door, and I totally panicked. I had been cutting up in class, and she gave my mother and father a firsthand account of everything I did. I think that’s why I straightened up a little bit. That was junior high school if I’m not mistaken, and I didn’t give any other teachers a hard time because I knew better. It wasn’t a good time in my house that day. And my father didn’t have a problem whooping me. He had a heavy hand and a strong belt. So I learned my lesson. But it worked out.
Yeah. And she lived across the street. SMT:
She lived across the street, about the middle of the MS: block, something like that across the street from me.
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Okay. Where did your family attend church? Describe it SMT: and where it was located.
We attended Turner Memorial AME Church, which was MS: at Six and I Northwest. Now moved out to Hyattsville. It’s off of [unintelligible] Road I think it is now. But we attended -- well, discard that. We all attended there until I got to a certain age. I can’t remember the age. My mother was Baptist. We were Methodist. While we were young, she came to the Methodist church with us. When we got older, she went back to her Baptist church. She went to Salem Baptist Church. My father was a Methodist and he was a strong believer. I think he was a deacon or whatever else in the church. He was very good with that. I’m not as good. My brother’s a deacon in his church now. I’m not, but I go to church occasionally. I don’t go regularly.
Where do you attend now? SMT:
Turner. MS:
Are you still at Turner? SMT:
Still Turner. MS:
Oh, good. SMT:
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That’s my church home. That’s the church I joined years ago and rejoined when I started going back to church. I just don’t go often now. I guess that’s the MS: best way to put it.
Yeah. SMT:
I have to do better, but I’ll be all right. MS:
SMT: Okay. Yeah, you will be. Yes. Just moving on to some other questions about your childhood.
00:20:00 Can you tell me a story of your most favorite childhood celebration and whether you participated in trick-or-treating and if so, what was your favorite costume?
Hmm. I never had a favorite costume ’cause I just made up stuff, and I can’t even remember what I used to make up. I was a football player. I was basketball. I did anything ’cause they didn’t believe in buying those cheap costumes, which I understood. All I wanted to do was go out to trick-or-treat. We used to love to go trick-or- treating. As a matter of fact, it was a group of us, we MS: went out the night before trick-or-treat. Called it beggars’
night.
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Yeah, it was beggars’ night. SMT:
MS: Beggars’ night. And there were so many apartments and I just knocked on doors. Didn’t open them, didn’t care. And then we went back trick-or-treating that night. I had so much candy. It’s a wonder I have any teeth at all.
SMT: Candy lasted ’til possibly Christmas.
Ooh, goodness gracious. It made no sense. I feel sorry for the kids today because people try to hurt these children, and I think it’s horrible the way people do things. MS:
It is. SMT:
When you have to go through the kids’ candy. My parents never had to even look at stuff like that, and I knew like loose candy and stuff that wasn’t wrapped, I threw it all away. I didn’t eat it. But these kids, you got to MS: watch everything these days.
You do. SMT:
Oh, so sad. MS:
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It is sad. Did you have any other favorite holiday SMT: celebration?
MS: Christmas.
SMT: Okay.
Christmas in my house was wonderful because they just about got me almost everything I needed and a couple things that I might want. But believe me, I appreciated it. And they always made a big deal out of it. As I got older, I learned to look around the house to find all the stuff that they bought. I stopped believing in Santa MS: Claus somewhere in there. I think I was about seven, eight.
When you discovered -- SMT:
Mommy and Daddy were Santa Claus? MS:
Yes. SMT:
My daughter was six. MS:
Oh, okay. Yeah. Wow. SMT:
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MS: She looked at me one day and says, “Daddy, you Santa Claus, ain’t you?” I just looked at her and I said, “Who told you that?”
SMT: Yeah, those were fun times then. Yes.
Yeah, absolutely. MS:
Yes. Yes. Fun times. Do you recall the occupations of any of the neighbors or childhood friends, their occupations? SMT:
Not really. I think the people who lived next door to us would never have gotten in this -- that neighborhood was almost probably 50 percent if not more white when we moved there. So my next-door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Paul. I remember their names. They were very nice people. They were Jewish I think. But they owned a candy store called Velatis I think it was called. There was only so many candy I liked. It was like camp MS: caramel candy or something like that. And they would bring us candy at least once a week, a nice big box of candy. They were the nicest people.
I just happened to notice and I said I was going to stop one day -- on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring there’s a Velatis now. And I’m intending to go in there one day and ask them are you all related to the
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Pauls because I haven’t seen them. I think they moved out of the neighborhood long -- they were much older than my parents I think.
You was on the end. So they lived right next to you. SMT:
Right next door to me. Yeah. MS:
Which was 12 Buchanan? SMT:
Twelve, yeah. MS:
Street Northeast? SMT:
Mm-hmm. MS:
Oh, okay. SMT:
MS: And I have no idea where they went, but of course of a kid I didn’t keep track of them and I didn’t ask my parents if they knew anything. I assume they moved into like a home or with the kids, but I don’t know. But then I know they were older.
SMT: Just a reflection on that, when you moved in when you were going to Keene, was it predominantly white on Buchanan Street or in that neighborhood?
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I think it was at least 50 percent or maybe a little better. MS:
Okay. SMT:
I think. I can’t say I played a lot of attention to that, but thinking back on it, I know there were quite a few white folks in the area, and then it just kind of fell out. They just MS: disappeared.
The change started. SMT:
The change started happening, yeah. In Keene Elementary School I think it was probably close to 50 MS: percent or not better white.
SMT: Do you remember any of your teachers at Keene? You went from what to what in Keene? What grades did you --
MS: I started there I was probably in the first grade. I was six. First grade, right?
00:25:00 SMT: Right.
MS: I can’t recall a teacher’s name. I’m horrible at names anyway.
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Yeah. You went all the way through to sixth grade. SMT:
Sixth Grade. Mm-hmm. MS:
Okay. SMT:
And then I think the seventh grade I went to MacFarland, and halfway through the eighth grade they opened Bertie Backus and they transferred us to Bertie Backus. I was in the first graduating class of Bertie MS: Backus.
SMT: Wow.
MS: Because we went half of the eighth grade and ninth grade and then we graduated. And they had to change that. That is called a middle school now and it’s -- how does it go?
Well, Bertie Backus now is part of UDC’s north campus. SMT:
Is it? MS:
Yes. SMT:
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I haven’t been by there in a while. MS:
Yeah. SMT:
Wow. MS:
Yeah. But they do call it middle school in Maryland. I’m not sure if they still call it junior high or middle school in DC. I’m not sure if they changed it from junior high to SMT: middle school or not.
MS: I can’t remember.
SMT: Yeah. Even Rabaut is no longer there. It’s a charter school currently.
Yeah, I think I noticed that, did notice that riding by that MS: area.
Yeah. Yeah. This is something that a lot of the kids used to be fond of, but I have to ask you before we get to the next question is where did your parents shop for groceries SMT: for their last-minute items?
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There was a Safeway up on North Capitol and Riggs Road. For the longest time that’s where they did most of their shopping as far as I know. They’d send me walking up there to get little items or when they just needed MS: something real quick, they’d send me there to Safeway.
During the time do you remember any of the market buses or anything coming through the neighborhood SMT: selling different items?
MS: Uh-uh. SMT: Or any trucks or anything that used to come through the neighborhood?
Ice cream man. MS:
Okay. All right. That is good. SMT:
Ice cream man definitely. MS:
Mr. Good Humor. SMT:
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Mr. Good Humor, always good ice cream. I tell you. I’ve seen these off-brand ones, and I wouldn’t buy off of them. They just don’t look clean. Good Humor always MS: looked clean.
That’s true. SMT:
They had a nice white truck. MS:
SMT: Did you frequent any of the other neighborhood stores like any corner stores or any memories of any of the other stores in the neighborhood? MS: There was a store going up North Capitol Street. You took the little short side street when you headed off Fort Totten. It was right at Fort Totten. What is that street? I don’t know the name of the street.
Rock Creek Church Road maybe? SMT:
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No, you’re headed towards Keene. That’s not Rock Creek Church Road. What was that street? If you were going up North Capitol, you’d keep straight above North Capitol, but there was a street that just went up a little hill. I don’t even know if it had a name on it, but there was one store up there, Bodanskys or something like that. Jewish folks. And we bought all our penny candy up there. And for a dime you could load up with candy for days and you used to get soda bottles and cash those in up there to get my candy sometimes. You get two cent for a bottle or MS: something like that. I don’t know. But I’d collect bottles and go up there and go shopping for candy.
SMT: Yeah. That’s when everything was in a glass bottle where you can return -- they had the return tax on it.
MS: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
On the bottles. SMT:
I’d just go right up there and get my candy and stop there on the way to school and get candy, which I wasn’t MS: supposed to do.
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On your way to Keene? SMT:
On the way to Keene. On the way home from Keene. And that was the thing back then, we’d walk to school all the MS: time. We still rolling good?
Yeah. Let’s pause a second. We okay. SMT:
Okay. MS:
Let’s pause it. See if we can pause. Let’s continue. Let’s put that on hold. What happened, my phone was going off SMT: and it caught it.
MS: Oh, it did?
31 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Yeah, the vibration part. MS: You’re lucky.
Yeah. SMT:
MS: Nobody’s called. Let me turn mine down here.
00:30:00 [inaudible] earlier today.
SMT: Okay. Continue. All right. Okay. And continuing our interview, can you tell me if you recall any news story about Fort Totten.
Any news? MS:
Any story that may have came up about Fort Totten or anything that happened at Fort Totten that may have SMT: been in the news.
MS: I don’t know if it was actually the news, but I do remember it wasn’t actually in Fort Totten; it was on the other side somewhere. They used to have like a little factory over there, sand or something over there.
Are you talking about the concrete? SMT:
32 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
SMT:
Yeah, concrete place. MS:
Yes. SMT:
There was a little boy. I think I was around the same age as him, six, seven years old. He was playing up there and some sand buried him and he died up there. That’s the one thing I do remember. I don’t remember his name. I MS: didn’t know him well, but I remember hearing about it.
Oh, so he may have come from the neighborhood SMT: somewhere over there playing?
MS: Somewhere in that area. Yeah, I think he was just playing up in there. And some kind of way this sand fell on him and they couldn’t get him out and he suffocated. How sad. MS: That was sad. I didn’t even know him well, but I mean I knew of him. I’d seen him I think, but it was terribly sad. I never went nowhere near that place anymore.
33 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
After that. SMT:
After that. Whew, [unintelligible] and says you better not MS: go over there.
Yeah. SMT:
But that was very sad. MS:
Yeah. SMT:
Very dangerous. MS:
SMT: Very dangerous place to be playing. Okay. Moving on to your teenage years, how would you describe your life as a teenager? And if you can, describe any fads, popular hairstyles, clothes, or shoes during those years.
34 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
SMT:
Oh, let’s see. Best thing I can tell you I know all of the fellows loved to wear gabardines and Hawaiian shirts to match very well and there was one pair of shoes I really loved, Melton loafers. I had a blonde pair and a black MS: pair, and they went with everything as far as I was concerned.
Loafers, oh, nice that stuff. SMT:
MS: And I had to work to get those ’cause my first pair of Converse Chuck Taylors I had to work to get. My mother didn’t believe in US Kids and they didn’t wear out quite frankly. So I bought my first pair of Converse All Star Chuck Taylors from working cutting grass and whatever else, and I think they were like seven bucks. And they would not buy them for me. I thought that was really mean because that wasn’t that expensive. But I’m wearing them today. Wearing a pair today. They don’t cost seven bucks anymore, I guarantee that. Yeah. Probably about 30-something now. MS: I think they’re like 40, 45 probably.
Wow. SMT:
35 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
And these are the low cut. But Chuck Taylors were a good thing, gabardines, Hawaiian shirts. What else? MS: I’m trying to think of what else. Sansabelt slacks.
Sansabelt slacks? SMT:
Yes. MS:
Where did you purchase those, like from Cavalier’s? SMT:
MS: You got it. You got it. In high school I knew these two guys that worked there, and one of them came out of school with my brother. The other one came out a year behind him. And they were brothers, Paul Gwen [phonetic] and Irvin Gwen [phonetic]. They worked at Cavalier’s for years. I used to go up there looking for them to get my bill because I couldn’t afford that stuff. You got to be kidding. But I liked to look good. I did the best I could.
And what would the guys -- how were they wearing their SMT: hair? Was it waves at the time or --
MS: I didn’t but a lot of guys did I think. My hair wouldn’t wave. I don’t know. I tried the stocking caps. I tried all that kind of stuff to make it wave. It didn’t do anything. So and the same now, it’s not doing much of anything. But I think there were a lot of guys who had natural wavy hair where they took their stocking cap off and they ended up with waves. I don’t know what the stocking cap did other than plaster it to my head. Some people just waved their hair and they looked good.
36 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
SMT:
00:35:00 I was like why can’t my hair do that, but it was good. I survived.
SMT: Okay. Yeah. It’s funny how things change and then they end up being the same. Like nowadays kids are doing the same thing that you may have done back in the -- what was that, the 1960s?
37 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
MS: Sixties, yeah.
Yeah. Some of the same styles just go right around in a SMT: circle.
I’m always waiting to see it come back. The one thing I haven’t seen yet, platform shoes. I never knew how I even walked in those things, but I had several pair because they were what was happening. But I think I put on a pair years after I stopped wearing them and I said how in the world did you walk around in these things. You look like you’re ready to fall over. I had some clogs that were platform. I had some regular boots that were platform. And I just I couldn’t believe I wore this stuff. I MS: looked at it and I said this needs to go in the trash because I would never put this stuff on again.
Yeah. It felt good too. SMT:
MS: Oh, yeah.
38 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
SMT: Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Can you tell me of a memorable event at school that you may have been a part of? That could have been like if you did anything in drama, choir, talent show, ROTC, or anything.
That’s what I was thinking about. My senior year of high school I was an officer in a Cadet Core. That’s what they called it back then. I think they call it ROTC these days. I think I was a captain and they made me -- what do they call it? They call it the regimental adjutant. And at big parades or at the parades I guess I should say -- we only had really one or two a year -- I got to strut across the field -- nobody else is moving -- and look good. I always thought I looked good anyway. And you bring the regiment to attention or do something. I can’t even MS: remember what we did. We yelled something. I can’t remember what it was. But you were the center of
attention for about a minute.
Very good. SMT:
39 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
MS: And I enjoyed it. I really did. I watched somebody do it one time and they tripped while they were walking down the field. And I always worried I would trip walking down the field, but it never happened.
And it made you feel good. SMT:
Absolutely. I carried the flag. MS:
How did it make you feel? SMT:
I felt ecstatic that everybody’s watching me who was in the place because nothing else is moving. Nothing’s moving when you strut and you go from maybe from the end of a field to like midfield and you turn and you snap yourself to attention and you announce -- I can’t remember what you announce. Something. I can’t remember what it was, but it was nice and loud so MS: everybody could hear. I guess they heard me. I had a
big enough mouth back then.
And this was when you was attending Roosevelt? SMT:
MS: Roosevelt. Mm-hmm.
40 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
SMT: So did you all do this out on what’s currently the football field?
Yeah, the football field that was there. And every year they had -- what did they call it? They had a MS: competition over at Eastern.
Okay. SMT:
MS: The best companies from each school went over competing. I always thought it was a little unfair because they kind of stacked the company from the schools with the best cadets. Once they selected the honor company who was going to represent us, they could stack the company with some of the best folks in the school. And I went I think it was eleventh grade -- it was probably tenth grade, eleventh grade, and twelfth grade. In twelfth grade I was the adjutant. I went in a company like a little sergeant just so I could be in the company. And actually I don’t know if I remember this stuff. I carried the flag. I was the guard arm bearer is what they call it and they used to make you twirl a flag pretty good. So I got chosen to do that for the honor company.
SMT: Very good.
Yeah. MS:
41 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Yeah. SMT:
Don’t ask me. MS:
Talent, you had talent in doing that. SMT:
Well, I had my brother working with me. Remember, I said he was a retired Marine. He was gung-ho before he MS: went in the Marine Corps.
SMT: Okay. Let’s see here. You already told me about the story of the young guy that got killed in the concrete place. I guess it left an impact on you, but do you recall any other event that may have happened in Fort Totten that may have left an impact on you at all?
00:40:04 If not, we can just move on to another question. MS: No. Just the day camp that was instrumental in my growing up and I just learned how to -- do you remember gimp [phonetic]?
Yes. Learn how to do gimp. Yes. SMT:
I made all kinds of things. I had a -- MS:
42 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
You have to have a skill to do that also to make keychains SMT: and --
I did it all. I loved it. And these long short things around your neck, it was just whatever somebody wanted, somebody asked for and I’d do. MS: [unintelligible] I do [unintelligible].
Can you explain that for generations to come as far as what gimp [phonetic] is? It was like vinyl shoestrings. SMT:
MS: Like vinyl shoestrings. Yeah. And you -- how do you explain that? You put it together so it makes different shapes and at the end of it you can make a keychain basically, but I don’t remember [inaudible].
SMT: It was different shapes like box --
Box. MS:
Round. SMT:
43 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Diamond. MS:
Diamonds. SMT:
Mm-hmm. I think the one was called a barrel. It was MS: the box with a twist to it.
And you would shape the vinyl shoestring as you can -- SMT: we can put it to make the shape --
Mm-hmm. MS:
-- of what you want, whether it was box, barrel. SMT:
MS: I made some that had all three of them, box, barrel, and diamond in one. SMT: That’s talent. Yeah.
I was playing with it. MS:
Yeah, but that was good. You were able to learn how to do SMT: that. And day camp taught you all of that.
44 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Day camp started me off, that and then the Boy Scouts. I did learn some of it in Boy Scouts too. My uncle was a MS: scoutmaster so I was a Boy Scout.
Where was the Boy Scout’s -- SMT:
People’s Congregational Church on 13th Street. MS:
Oh, okay. SMT:
Near Roosevelt. That was where we were. My father was like an assistant scoutmaster, and my uncle was the MS: scoutmaster.
SMT: What’s your uncle’s name?
45 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
MS: Connie Stanley. And I don’t know if you remember Connie Stanley. And we can go back. We can do this thing. My uncle was killed in 1970-something I think. On Georgia Avenue this guy walked around shooting people. He killed two people, my uncle being one of them. Believe it or not, they were both black chemists from NIH.
Wow. Sorry to hear that. SMT:
And my brother’s wife was shot in the back. She’s been MS: paralyzed ever since.
Your brother’s -- SMT:
Wife. Mm-hmm. They were leaving my house for dinner. MS:
Wow. I’m sorry. SMT:
That was -- whew, that was a night. MS:
SMT: They don’t know where this guy came from? He just randomly --
46 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
MS: He was randomly walking from like -- say they walk from, what is it Reedy Drive from near Wheaton Plaza and walked up the street and he was shooting in cars. They finally ended up killing him.
Sad. SMT:
That was one of the worst nights of my life. MS:
I would imagine so. I’m very sorry to hear that. SMT:
Yeah. We recovered. I mean you do the best you can. My uncle’s kids are very prominent. They’re doing very well. One retired as an anesthesiologist, and her brother is -- he’s in business. He does trading and all kinds of stuff. He used to be an ice skater. He almost made it to MS: the Olympics. But that was a big tragedy there.
47 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Okay. I would imagine so. Yes. Getting into the music scene while you were a teenager, do you have a favorite SMT: song, music, or dance that you can recall?
MS: Hand dance for sure.
SMT: A hand dance.
I used to love to hand dance. I mean I thought I was good. And mostly everybody I grew up with could hand MS: dance.
Where would you all go to hand dance? SMT:
House parties. MS:
House parties. Okay. SMT:
Yeah. Blue lights in the basement. Lots of fun. I got decent at dancing because of my brother probably. I was usually the girl and he would practice on me. So when he got good, I was getting better because I could do the girl MS: parts.
48 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
You knew how to twirl them. SMT:
MS: Yes, I did. But hand dancing. I think mostly what we did was hand dancing. Of course slow drag. SMT: And one more.
Which one was that? MS:
The bop. SMT:
MS: Oh, yeah. I used to love to do -- I still do that occasionally.
00:45:00 I don’t hand dance as much. My breathing is not as good as it used to be, but loved to bop. That’s true. You’re right. That was a good one, a nice slow easy thing and be cool with it. That’s what I like to be.
And who did you listen to as far as artists were SMT: concerned?
Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, James Brown, the usual. I’m trying to think of who else. Martha and the MS: Vandellas, Supremes, all of the above.
SMT: All of [inaudible].
49 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
MS: Mostly Motown folks. Everyone was all Motown back then, no regular good entertainers and they could dance, especially The Temptations.
Yeah, they could. Yeah. And as far as on the family side, did you have any chores that you had to do around the SMT: house?
Clean up my room, wash dishes, take out the trash, and don’t make faces when you do it. It’s actually how I learned how to clean because that was a Saturday chore before you could do anything else. You had to clean the MS: house.
Yeah. SMT:
And everybody was helping so you just couldn’t get out of that. You didn’t even go out of the house. Get up and start cleaning, that’s the best bet. And you started in your MS: room.
SMT: I think that was across the board for all the children in the neighborhood.
50 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
MS: Yeah.
You learn how to be independent and take care of yourselves. Yes. So you told me you went to house parties. Is there anywhere else you might have SMT: socialized as a teenager?
For the most part that was it as a teenager anyway. Yeah. It was house parties because somebody always MS: did something at their house.
How about at school or -- SMT:
Well, they had some dances at school of course. At the high school they had dances I think. I’m trying to remember some of them had names for them. We had names. I can’t even remember. Boy, that was a long MS: time ago.
Did you ever go to the movie theater or -- SMT:
51 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Kennedy. MS:
SMT: Okay.
MS: The Kennedy Theater and I remember when it was a quarter to go in and see at least two movies for a quarter and we would get a charm. Lasted the whole movie.
What’s a charm? SMT:
Charm is a big sucker, lollipop. It was thick. Do you MS: remember that?
Yes, I do. SMT:
It lasted through the whole movie. Matter of fact, I walked home with one sometimes ’cause I couldn’t MS: finish it.
Yeah. It used to be a real large -- SMT:
MS: Real large, mm-hmm, thick. Get some popcorn and that and that was it, and you still didn’t spend much. Used to probably still didn’t spend a dollar from something to drink, popcorn, and a charm and getting in
52 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018 the movie. Probably was maybe a dollar and a quarter. Maybe. But it was very cheap. But the Kennedy Theater was a walk from my house.
And that was located on Kennedy Street Northwest. SMT:
Kennedy Street, like what was that, like Third and MS: Kennedy, something like that?
Oh, yes. SMT:
On Kennedy between Third and Fourth. MS:
Yes. SMT:
And I think that may be a church now. Not even sure. MS:
I think it may be. SMT:
Yeah. MS:
SMT: Can you tell me if you noticed any changes socially, economically during those years? Did you notice any change going on?
53 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018 MS:
Being a typical unobservant child, no, I didn’t notice anything basically other than the neighborhood as I grew up became predominantly black. So I’m going to assume the whites just decided to move out because there were too many blacks moving in, and the blacks were coming up in the world and wanted to own property so they moved in. I don’t know. I didn’t ask. I didn’t pay much attention to that as a typical child. I just enjoyed the new folks that were coming in.
Yeah. Okay. After completing high school, what did you SMT: do?
Immediately, let’s see because my brother was in college. They wanted me to go to college, but I had heard so many times I don’t have any money, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, and I felt like they can’t afford to send me to college too so I got a job. And I worked for close to a year before I got drafted to the Army.
MS:
Oh, you went in the Army. You served the Army.
Yeah. I spent two years and nine months in the Army. I went to Vietnam, came home, and then I went to college.
SMT:
54 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018 MS:
Okay. Well, SMT: congratulations.
And they paid for it. MS:
SMT: Yeah.
00:50:00 MS: Went to UDC so it was very cheap. Well, it was Washington Tech when I started. So I enjoyed that because I ran into a bunch of other veterans and we just had a ball hanging out and going to class. I worked full time and went to school at night.
And what did you major? What was your major SMT: coming out?
Business management. MS:
Okay.
But during that time I was working at the courthouse, and I figured once I got my little degree, I was going to get out and I’d really make some money. Nobody was offering any money for a little bachelor’s. I was making more than most people with a bachelor’s degree by that time because it took me close to six years to finish. So I just ended up staying in the court and that’s where I retired from.
SMT:
55 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018 MS:
Okay. So what was your occupation at the court or your SMT: profession?
I was an office manager I guess is the best way to put it. MS: My title was called branch chief.
Okay. SMT:
For probably about 25, 26 years and then I went to the IT department and helped with the computer system. I enjoyed that.
MS:
Were you still living in DC at that time or had you moved out?
SMT:
56 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018 MS:
I was living -- I had been in Maryland, DC, and back in Maryland. My first house was off of North Capitol Street on Girard Street right below Michigan Avenue, my first house. I’m now in Silver Spring, downtown Silver Spring, but I’ve been three other places since then.
Okay. SMT:
But I’m happy where I am. I’m going to stay there probably ’til I die. It’s paid for now so I don’t want to pay for MS: anything else.
I understand that. So you lived in a couple of places besides Fort Totten. And you lived at Savannah Terrace. You lived at Buchanan Street in Fort Totten. SMT: You lived -- what other neighborhood.
MS: I lived on 30th Street Southeast probably about maybe only three years really. I lived at Wheaton [phonetic]. What’s that street up there? Georgia Woods apartments is what it was. Uh-huh. You ever heard of Old Macdonald’s Farm? SMT: I’ve heard of it, yes.
It’s up in that area. That’s where they were. It was off of MS: Georgia Avenue. Let’s see.
57 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
But as far as DC is concerned, you lived in maybe about SMT: four different places in the district?
Roughly, yeah. MS:
Okay. Did you notice any change as far as gentrification or anything during the time, whether it was occurring at the time that you were living there or was it still SMT: predominantly black when you were --
MS: Predominantly black when I was there. Since I’ve been in Silver Spring, I watched say like the Eastern area, it’s become probably white. I was totally amazed. I think I had been -- I just love Ben’s Chili Bowl. And one night at midnight we were out and we all decided to go to Ben’s Chili Bowl. It was more white people in there than there was us. I was totally, totally shocked. I said when did this happen. That whole area had been built up and totally changed.
SMT: Was this recent or was this in the last --
This has been the last, what, 10, 15 years maybe. MS:
Okay. SMT:
58 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
I guess since it started building up down there. I guess that’s what it was. But I hadn’t been there. So I didn’t notice the change. And I guess what we used to call Chocolate City is a Vanilla swirl now is what I call it ’cause it’s no longer Chocolate City. That’s the truth. It’s amazing to go in areas where you used to see blacks and there was a lot of trouble and a lot of problems. I was scared to walk down the street in some of them. And now you see white people walking their dogs out there. So you know they’re taking over. MS: So they’re in that area. But I mean some of it’s changed for the good. I hate to see black folks run out
of the city because this is Chocolate City.
SMT: Right. MS: And they’re running out to the suburbs. I’m out there too. I can’t talk about everybody. I didn’t run out there. I just happen to be there now. But I know a lot of people were in PG County too. So they’re building these nice houses out there, and black folks were jumping on it. They’re getting out of the city.
59 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
They are moving. It’s like a reverse migration right now SMT: that’s going on between DC and Maryland.
Yeah. MS:
Back in the sixties it was the opposite. SMT:
Just the opposite. MS:
Yes. Okay. A few more questions, Michael. SMT:
Okay. MS:
00:54:58 SMT: What in your opinion makes Fort Totten a unique place to have lived?
60 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
MS: Back when I moved there and all through my childhood growing up there, it didn’t seem odd. Looking back, it seems odd. It’s a neighborhood. All the kids were close. Kids played there in the neighborhood. They all got along. You go to a neighborhood, you hardly see that anymore. And I don’t know what happened that’s caused that. I used to cut grass, shovel snow, and this was to make money so I could buy my Chuck Taylor’s. I look around my neighborhood now where I live in Silver Spring. There ain’t nobody coming around asking me do you need your snow shoveled, your grass cut, nothing. It’s not the same anymore. People just don’t do that. The kids are -- I don’t want to say they’re lazy, but apparently they don’t need it as bad as I wanted it. I don’t know.
Yeah. It’s a different set of children nowadays. SMT:
MS: It sure is. I mean I just tell my daughter, I said you got to work for it, sweetie. I said nobody’s going to hand you anything. And I think most kids, a lot of kids, they’re handled everything nowadays. It’s like entitlement.
61 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
SMT: Yeah, instant. Yeah. I call it the microwave generation. They just want things so instantly and they’re given it where they think they’re entitled to it. Yeah. That’s just my own personal opinion.
My baby girl is 35 right now. And when she was in high school, she wanted a cell phone. You get a job, you can get a cell phone. I’m not paying for you to have a cell phone. What do you need a cell phone for? You’re in school all day long. And she finally had a part-time job and she bought her cell phone, and I said don’t you feel much better. It’s yours, you bought it. You’re gonna pay for it. That’s the same way I’m gonna do with your car too. So you buy your first car. She said but Daddy, a lot of people buy their MS: children cars. I said I’m not a lot of people. You appreciate it more.
I got my first car, I bought it myself. It was a struggle. I went to look for my first car when I got out of the service I think. No, before I got out of the service. I’m riding around asking people, and they said you need a co-signer. For what? They said well, you don’t have any established credit. I said how do you establish credit if nobody will give you any, and I kept going around ’til I found somebody who would give it to me. And I’ve always been good with my credit so I’ve never had a problem. But I wasn’t going to ask my father to co-sign. And then I learned working at the
62 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018 courthouse a co-signer is guaranteeing you’re gonna pay that money. I watched so many people getting sued as co-signers. He told me he was gonna pay. I learned don’t co-sign for nobody.
That’s exactly right. Yeah. SMT:
Don’t co-sign for anybody. MS:
That’s exactly right. That’s the way I pretty much taught my kids too. I’ll teach you how to save your credit, but I’m not co-signing. But just moving on, what is the one thing that you most want people from SMT: this interview to remember about you and any lessons learned as a result of living in Fort Totten?
MS: Let’s go to the second part first. As I mentioned earlier, growing up in what I called neighborhoods, I couldn’t be two blocks, maybe three blocks from home and do something wrong. They knew who I was, and they might whoop me and then call my mother. You learn not to misbehave away from home because everybody knows who you are. So you learn to respect your elders because I got beat horribly one time for disrespecting this lady. She beat me and when I got home, she had talked to my mama and I got beaten again. That’s okay. I learned that lesson very well.
63 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
But just neighborhoods were like that back then. I mean it didn’t happen often, but it happened to me and it taught me a valuable lesson. Be very careful and respect your elders. That was kind of the bottom line.
Yeah, respect. Yes. SMT:
Yeah, respect your elders. MS:
You learned a lot of respect growing up. SMT:
Yeah. And my parents pushed that. MS:
SMT: Okay. So it just made you a better person.
MS: I think so. I think so.
00:59:59 I’ve enjoyed life. I mean growing up was a part of that and it taught me a lot of lessons. Sitting here talking to Stephanie and I keep saying Mills, but what’s your last name now?
It is Stephanie Mills Trice. SMT:
64 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Trice? See, I didn’t know that part. All I know is you’re in MS: my phone as Stephanie Mills.
Same person. SMT:
It’s the same person. And we go back 40, almost 50 years MS: probably.
Yeah. I moved to Fort Totten with my parents in 1956. So I’ve been knowing probably since I got old enough to meet SMT: you, it’s been probably over 50 years.
MS: Now I’m 69. How many years older am I than you?
SMT: Six.
Six? MS:
Yeah. SMT:
I think Sam was my age. MS:
Yeah. Yeah, my brother, Samuel Mills, yes. SMT:
65 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
He was my age. MS:
Yeah. That is true. SMT:
Yeah. And Glen Cherry, Glen was my age and Carlton was MS: Clifford’s age.
Okay. SMT:
We all kind of were close. Gregory Battle fell in the middle of me and Clifford. I talked to him a couple weeks MS: ago too.
SMT: Oh, very good. MS: And Mike Swann was my age. And I think we were all close in proximity within a matter of two or three years or so.
I think we are. We in the same generation, yes. SMT:
Yeah. MS:
66 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Yeah. SMT:
And that’s amazing to me. I tell people I talk to my high school folks or my high school class of ’67. We get together all the time and just kind of hang out with some brothers. But I talked about neighborhood people I run into and they say you still talking to them, Yes. I said you MS: don’t. When we get together, we’re happy.
I think it’s a bond that we share. SMT:
MS: Yeah. And I’m not sure people have that bond anymore, and I think that’s what I appreciate about that neighborhood. The neighborhood, it caused close bonds.
SMT: You’re right. I agree with you, Michael.
All right. MS:
Yeah. SMT:
Outstanding. MS:
67 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Okay. Okay. I want to thank you again. SMT:
My pleasure. I hope I was helpful. MS:
You were very helpful and thank you for your service. I did not know that you served in the Army until today. SMT: And thank you for your service --
Thank you. MS:
-- and again taking the time to sit down with me so we could share and go back down memory lane. I really SMT: appreciate it.
MS: I enjoyed it, Stephanie. Believe me.
SMT: Okay. All right.
I enjoyed it. I figured I would because we’ve seen each other at Roosevelt things and off and on here, one time MS: at Fort Totten.
68 Stephanie Mills Trice Michael Stanley 06-05-2018
Yeah. We had a Fort Totten reunion -- SMT:
Yeah. MS:
-- back in I think it was in 2005 you came. SMT:
Was it that long ago? Yeah. MS:
Yes, 2005 and we had two more block parties after that, 2010 and 2011. I don’t know whether you got an SMT: opportunity to attend then.
MS: One if I remember because I think you let me know about one and I think I was out of town. I vaguely remember you calling me or somebody called and told me about it and I was out of town I think.
SMT: Okay. Okay. But again thank you for your time.
MS: Thank you for trusting me with giving this knowledge out. I’ve enjoyed it.
69